Jamie Simpson’s wife awoke early in the morning on Feb. 22, 2023, to find her husband sitting on top of her, she testified during Simpson’s trial in Kenton County Circuit Court.

Over the next four hours, Simpson beat his wife with a mason jar and candle, punched and kicked her, strangled her and held a knife to her side and neck while their three children were asleep in the house, according to testimony from the four-day trial.

What began with accusations of an affair turned into Simpson holding his wife captive while he tortured her and told her she was going to die, prosecutors said.

After she was able to get away, Simpson stayed in her home until a Covington police SWAT team flushed him out with tear gas.

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A Kenton County jury on Friday found 49-year-old Simpson guilty of burglary, kidnapping, assault, strangulation, tampering with a witness and being a persistent felony offender.

Prosecutors also said that Simpson sexually assaulted his wife, but the jury disagreed and found him not guilty of a sexual abuse charge.

During those hours that Simpson assaulted and strangled his wife, he continued to accuse her of cheating, looked through her phone for proof and prevented the woman from leaving despite her pleas to be released, she testified.

She was only able to get away after an alarm went off around 6:30 a.m. and she told Simpson she had to make her family court appointment or someone would come looking for her.

Simpson’s wife dropped the children off at daycare and went to St. Elizabeth Hospital, where she reported the assault to the police, she testified.

“They listened to her story of horror about how she was trapped in her own home and terrorized by her own husband and beaten and cut and strangled for hours on end,” said Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders at the beginning of the trial.

Despite a court order to stay at least 500 feet from his wife, Simpson remained at the Idlewood Drive home, where he’d been staying the day before the assault. His wife admitted in court, however, that she did not notify the police once he began violating that order.

Covington police responded to the house, aware that Simpson was possibly armed with a knife and shotgun, and they encountered Simpson as he walked out the front door, according to officers’ testimony.

Simpson testified that he saw an officer running toward him, so he went back inside and tried to run out the back door, where he encountered another officer who pointed a gun at him.

He said he retreated inside the house and holed up in the master bedroom, barricading the doors and windows with furniture.

“I ran from the police because I knew the police were after me for putting hands on my wife,” Simpson said.

The standoff lasted four hours, during which police repeatedly ordered Simpson to come out and even got ahold of him over the phone, but he refused to leave the house, prosecutors said.

It only ended after SWAT officers launched pepper spray rounds into the house, forcing Simpson out. He surrendered to the officers, was placed in handcuffs and taken to the Kenton County Detention Center.

Police found a pocket knife on the floor of the home’s entryway and underneath a bed was a single-barrel shotgun, which did not have ammunition, according to trial testimony.

After he was arrested, Simpson continued to call and text his wife from jail, telling her not to show up for court and that she should relay to authorities that the assault didn’t really happen, prosecutors said.

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Simpson’s attorneys argued that a heated argument between the couple after Simpson discovered his wife’s affair led to him being overcharged with serious felony offenses.

“This is a simple case of a disagreement between two people that is overcomplicated and under-investigated,” said Alex Lacy, one of Simpson’s attorneys.

On the witness stand, Simpson admitted to striking his wife with his hand and a candle but continued to deny much of what he was convicted of, including holding his wife against her will.

The jury recommended Simpson serve 60 years in prison. He’s expected to appear in court again on March 4 for a final sentencing hearing before Judge Kate Molloy.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Kenton County jury finds man guilty of kidnapping, ‘terrorizing’ wife