Former Shore man accused of murdering toddler

By Linda Cicoira

A Chesapeake man, with ties to the Eastern Shore, was charged in late March with second-degree murder and several other violent crimes in connection with the death of a two-year-old girl who was left in his care.

Thirty-five-year-old Harvion Lontel Simpkins is listed as a Chesapeake resident. According to reports, he is in custody at the Chesapeake City Jail without bond. Court records show Simpkins was charged with murder, malicious assault with victim injury, child abuse, cruelty/injury of a child, and extortion in writing. A preliminary hearing in Chesapeake Juvenile Domestic Relations Court was set for July 21. The incidents are alleged to have occurred on March 29 and 30.

Simpkins was 22 and lived in Onancock in October of 2009 when he was charged with of carnal knowledge of a child between 13 and 14 years old, and two counts of child sexual abuse. He was convicted of all three charges the following year and sentenced to a total of 11 years with all but nine months suspended. Simpkins has been registering as a sex offender since 2010 and last registered about a week before the Chesapeake toddler died.

Reports are that the child died at the Children’s Hospital of the Kings’ Daughters on March 30. She was admitted there on the previous day with life-threatening injuries. She had internal injuries, a fractured skull, and visible bruises.

The toddler’s mother, Tiesha Burton, called police due to an argument with Simpkins that escalated to the point she felt she needed to get her children and belongings from the hotel room where they were staying.

Burton had left her children, the toddler and an infant, with Simpkins on March 28 while she was working. Reports are the toddler was fine when Burton went to work.