BURLINGTON — A man has been convicted of federal kidnapping and interstate transportation of stolen vehicles.
Everett A. Simpson, 45, was convicted on all counts after a jury trial.
According to court documents and testimony, Simpson absconded from the Valley Vista treatment facility in Bradford, Vermont, and stole a commercial van in Newbury, Vermont.
He eventually deserted that vehicle in a parking garage in Manchester, New Hampshire on the morning of January 5, 2019.
Later that same day, in the parking lot of the Mall of New Hampshire, Simpson kidnapped a young woman and her four-year-old child after forcing his way into the young woman’s car.
Simpson held the woman and her child against their will, driving from New Hampshire into Vermont, where Simpson attempted to locate his estranged wife.
After abandoning the effort to find his wife, Simpson continued the kidnapping, now seeking to sexually assault the young woman.
Simpson assaulted the woman in her car and at a hotel in White River Junction, before freeing her and her child.
Simpson fled the area in the woman’s stolen car.
Simpson was eventually arrested after two high-speed pursuits in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, during the second of which he was driving a third vehicle he had stolen.
Simpson represented himself at trial with Steven Barth of the Office of the Federal Public Defender serving as stand-by counsel.
Simpson faces a statutory mandatory minimum of twenty years’ imprisonment, and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Simpson’s actual sentence will be determined by District Judge Sessions and will be advised by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
