The trial in the 2015 assault and murder of a Madison Valley woman is beginning this week with the lawyer for the the man accused of the crime presenting a defense that blames the victim’s mental health and a roommate for the woman’s death.
Eric Sims, 48, has waived his right to a jury trial and put the decision on the murder and sexual assault charges against him in the hands of a King County Superior Court judge.
This week’s start of proceedings will represent a long anticipated milestone for the family of Devan Schmidt who waited five years after her death for an arrest in the case.
Schmidt arrived in Seattle in 2014 from her adopted home in Alaska to be with her boyfriend while he attended college. While she enjoyed the city, family said she planned to return to Alaska for snowboarding and hiking as soon as her boyfriend finished school. Schmidt worked in the service industry in Alaska and was a server for the Alaska Railroad. In Seattle, she worked for a downtown comedy club.
On the morning of May 2nd, 2015, the 29-year-old was found unconscious by a housemate in the Madison Valley home they shared with roommates. The man called 911 and was guided through CPR. Seattle Fire medics rushed to the house near E Denny Way and 29th Ave E, but pronounced Schmidt dead at the scene.
In addition to a lethal level of cocaine, plus non-lethal amounts of sleeping pills and prescription drugs found in her stomach, the medical examiner also found suspicious injuries to her face that indicated she had been struck, and hemorrhages to her throat where she had been choked. The medical examiner said the circumstances around her death were “concerning for homicidal violence,” and asphyxia “could not be ruled out” but authorities were ultimately unable to determine a cause and manner of death. Schmidt’s family said the drugs found in her system complicated the investigation.
It took five years, a report by an independent investigator, and attention from the true crime series “Breaking Homicide” for Seattle Police to make an arrest in the case.
Last summer, Sims was charged with second degree murder and pleaded not guilty. Armed with DNA evidence and powered by attention from the TV show that featured Schmidt’s death with cooperation of the victim’s family and local investigators including the SPD Detective who had worked on the case, prosecutors alleged Sims returned to Schmidt’s Madison Valley home after a night of partying.
When Schmidt was found dead that morning with her system filled with a lethal amount of cocaine, plus antidepressants, and a sleep aid, injuries to her body indicated someone had been on top of her while she was face down, police say. Sims’ DNA was located on Schmidt’s front neck, right wrist, and right-hand fingernail clippings and police say the examiner found indications of “the presence of sperm without semen, from a male who has had a vasectomy.” Sims’ wife told investigators that he has had a vasectomy, according to prosecutors.
In court documents, police describe a group partying with wine and cocaine until around dawn when Schmidt’s two friends and Sims left in separate vehicles. Not long after, police say Schmidt contacted her friends and said Sims had returned. “Your boy is here what’s the best way to get rid of him?” Schmidt told her friends she didn’t need help and could handle it. It was the last they heard from her.
Prosecutors have since charged Sims with second degree rape. He has remained behind bars in King County Jail since his May 2020 arrest. His previous criminal record includes drug convictions in the 1990s and another in 2003.
With a legal process slowed by the COVID-19 crisis, proceedings were further delayed by a change of judges this summer. But as the case went forward and the process to seat a new jury ramped up, Sims’ defense chose to move forward with the bench trial and no jury as it presents its case that the victim suffered from depression and that police did not adequately investigate one of Schmidt’s male roommates. The defense has also unsuccessfully sought to block evidence from Dr. Kanthi De Alwis, the forensic pathologist paid by Schmidt’s family to examine medical reports in the case.
In 2017, CHS was contacted by Sims after we reported on the lack of progress in the case. “The story posted here is one sided and missing the actions of this Beautiful person who I believed took her own life,” Sims wrote. Sims told CHS he had a nonviolent criminal history — “I did my time for the mistakes I made,” he said. Sims also professed innocence. ” I am sorry that this happen, and if I was responsible I would not be here to say this,” he wrote. “No way can a common drug addict pull off what you claim.”
This summer, Sims contacted CHS again from jail to profess his innocence and, this time, implicate Schmidt’s roommate for the murder. His lawyer Poulsbo-based attorney Thomas Olmstead did not respond to CHS’s inquiry about the call.
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