Major twist in murder of wealthy Texas realtor Suzanne Simpson

The longtime business partner of a Texas real estate mogul whose wife went missing has been indicted on allegations he helped his friend hide evidence related to her murder.

James “Val” Cotter, 65, was indicted Monday by a grand jury on charges of tampering with evidence with intent to obstruct an investigation and possession of a prohibited weapon in the case of missing real estate agent Suzanne Simpson. the San Antonio Express-News reports.

He is accused of entering mother-of-four Brad’s armory on Oct. 8 and taking an AK-47 that prosecutors say had been illegally converted into a “machine gun” and improperly registered. according to KSAT.

An arrest warrant obtained by My San Antonio claims that Brad, 53, contacted him that day and asked for help hiding a gun.

“If you are in Bandera can you bring a** and meet me at your place,” Brad allegedly wrote.

He later allegedly told Cotter: “Make sure you leave all that s*** in the pump house, especially the gun.”

“Sorry for the urgency, but you’re all I have, especially now… social media is destroying me,” Brad texted his longtime friend, according to the warrant.

When questioned by police, Cotter initially claimed that Simpson was referring to a .22 caliber rifle he had taken from Simpson’s home.

But an anonymous witness later told police that Cotter had actually taken an AK47 from the Brad family’s walk-in safe, which the warrant said was stocked with weapons.

Cotter was subsequently arrested on October 22 when police officers found the gun hidden behind a false wall in his Bandera home.

He posted bond on Nov. 8 after a judge lowered his bail from $1 million to $100,000.

Under the conditions of his release, Cotter is not allowed to have any contact with Brad or be in possession of any firearms. He must also wear a GPS monitor, surrender his passport to police and submit to drug and alcohol tests.

Meanwhile, Brad is charged with first-degree murder in his wife’s disappearance, despite investigators never finding her body.

Suzanne’s family does said KAB that authorities told them her DNA was found on a portable reciprocating saw – a motorized hand saw, which was mentioned in a recently released criminal complaint.

It alleged that Brad “knowing that an investigation was underway, namely a missing persons investigation” hid the saw on October 8 “with the intent to impede its availability as evidence in the investigation.” My San Antonio Reports.

The indictment does not specify how he hid the gun or where it was found.

The real estate mogul was first arrested on Oct. 9 in Kendall County — three days after the 51-year-old mother of four was last seen walking late outside her $1.5 million home in San Antonio’s posh Olmos Park had an altercation with him.

A neighbor had claimed that shortly before 11pm on October 6, they witnessed Brad and Suzanne in the middle of a heated argument in their garage and “physically wrestling with each other.”

At one point, they said Suzanne “tried to break free from Mr. Simpson’s grasp as he tried to pull her down,” and that he then chased her as she ran away, according to the affidavit.

The neighbor also claimed he heard screams coming from a wooded area before Brad emerged about an hour later and drove off in his truck.

The Simpson’s five-year-old child was also questioned by a school counselor and alleged that his father “pushed her mother against the wall, punched her mother (physically) in the face and hurt her mother’s elbow at their residence.”

Brad also “turned off her mother’s phone because they were arguing,” the child reportedly said.

Police say the next day Brad was seen with large trash bags and ice coolers, covered in a tarp, in the bed of his truck as he pulled into a Whataburger. according to the New York Post.

He allegedly bought concrete and visited a landfill before spending 13 minutes in nearby Bandera, where he apparently unloaded a large object from the bed of his pickup truck.

It was that day that Brad first reported his wife missing, and the next day he was reportedly seen buying Clorox wipes and cement.

A man said Simpson walked up to him in the Home Depot parking lot and asked him where the nearest dump was, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Authorities also said Brad “showed no emotion” in the first few days of the missing persons investigation.

They said he “seemed unconcerned about his wife being missing and showed little to no emotion,” with a Texas ranger also noting that Brad had several scrapes and cuts on his hands and arms.

Detectives later explained that his chilling behavior was a factor in Brad “intentionally and knowingly causing the death of his wife” on October 6 in San Antonio.

They noted that Brad initially cooperated with police, but said he then told conflicting stories when asked for details about his wife’s disappearance.

He initially claimed he last saw her at 11 p.m. on October 6, hours after Suzanne was last seen walking around her exclusive country club in Texas.

But at another point, he claimed he last saw her around 6:30 a.m. on October 7, shortly before he said he dropped one of their children off at school.

He said that that morning he “looked into a separate room and saw his wife sleeping.”

When investigators searched his phone, they reportedly discovered that he was “involved in a series of complete shutdowns” that began at 11:09 PM on October 6 and ended the next day.

He allegedly went beyond turning off his phone and instead put it in “Lock Down” mode, which the FBI classified as “done by a person wishing to avoid detection,” according to his arrest affidavit.

But on October 9, police reportedly had a breakthrough when Texas Rangers found a burn mark on the ground floor of Simpson’s Bandera compound, where they found a burned laptop and three cellphones that once belonged to him.

When Brad was subsequently arrested, officers said he “did not appear surprised at the time of his arrest” and did not question why he was being arrested on charges of assault occasioning bodily harm, domestic violence and unlawful restraint.

Brad is now charged with second-degree tampering with evidence with intent to harm a human corpse, third-degree possession of a prohibited weapon, and third-degree tampering/fabrication of physical evidence with intent to harm.

If found guilty, he could be sentenced to two to 99 years in prison or life in prison, depending on the charges he is convicted of.

But his lawyer has argued that prosecutors cannot charge Brad without saying how he killed his wife.

Public Defender Steven Gilmore said the indictment is “vague, indefinite, ambiguous and uncertain,” and argued that if the indictment does not state how Simpson killed his wife or where he hid the body, it is impossible to make a reasonable to establish a defense.

He said the state must provide more evidence before pursuing prosecution.

Brad is now due back in court on Thursday for a bond modification hearing, and will appear in court on April 8 for a custody hearing.