ELKTON – A Cecil County grand jury has upgraded charges to first-degree murder against a man who allegedly strangled to death the mother of their four children inside a Cecilton home in June and then told investigators that she had committed suicide by hanging herself.
The grand jury handed up the four-count indictment against Jason Timothy Simpson, 27, of Elkton on Wednesday, retaining the original second-degree murder charge that was filed against him in late August at the district court level, and adding first-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault to the list.
By doing so after the prosecution presented its case to that 23-member panel, the grand jury concluded that Simpson “did feloniously, willfully and of deliberately premeditated malice afterthought kill and murder” Ashley Todd Silverman, also 27, on June 18 inside a residence in the 100 block of West Main Street in Cecilton, according to the indictment…