David Simonsen and Jeffrey Williams were sentenced to death by the State of Kentucky for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents David Simonsen and Jeffrey Williams would pick up up the two German tourists who were sexually assaulted and murdered. Both David Simonsen and Jeffrey Williams would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
David Simonsen 2021 Information
| Offender Name: | Simonsen, David Lynn |
| Age: | 53 |  | DOB: | 01/1968 |  | Location: | Oregon State Penitentiary |
| Gender: | Male | | Race: | White Or European Origin | | Status: | AIC |
| Height: | 6′ 06” | | Hair: | Brown | | Field Admission Date: | 02/27/1989 |
| Weight: | 195 lbs | | Eyes: | Brown | | Earliest Release Date: | Death |
Jeffrey Williams Death
Jeffrey Ray Williams died in custody in 2019. No cause of death was released however it is believed it was from natural causes
David Simonsen More News
Williams and David Lynn Simonsen were convicted and sentenced to death for the 1988 sexual assault and shotgun slayings of Unna Tuxen, 24, and Kathrin Reith, 22, German tourists who were hitchhiking up the West Coast near the Oregon-California border.
David Simonsen Other News
On September 3, 1988, the bodies of two women were found in a remote area near Coquille. Both women, who had been dead for two or three days, were nude from the waist down. They had been tied together at the wrists and shot in the head from close range with a shotgun. Police found a great deal of physical evidence at the scene, including tire tracks from a small automobile.
Investigators eventually determined that the victims were from West Germany. A week after the bodies were discovered, two witnesses separately came forward to report that defendant had said that he and a man named Jeff Williams had been involved in shooting two women with a sawed-off shotgun. On September 11, 1988, police arrested defendant. After being advised of his rights, defendant gave two statements confessing that he and Williams had abducted, raped, and murdered the women. As a result of defendant’s confessions, investigators eventually recovered significant evidence implicating defendant, including the suspect automobile and the murder weapon.
After being charged with two counts of aggravated murder, defendant pleaded guilty. The trial court conducted a penalty-phase proceeding. The jury answered the penalty-phase questions put to it in the affirmative, and the trial court sentenced defendant to death.
On October 4, 1990, on automatic review, this court affirmed defendant’s convictions, but vacated the sentence of death, because the jury was not presented with the “fourth question” under ORS 163.150 (1989). State v. Simonsen, 310 Or. 412, 798 P.2d 241 (1990) (Simonsen I); see generally State v. Wagner, 309 Or. 5, 14-20, 786 P.2d 93 (1990) (setting out reasons that “fourth question” must be given).
On remand, defendant again was sentenced to death. However, on automatic review of that sentence, this court held that the state had obtained evidence against defendant in violation of his right against self-incrimination under Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution. State v. Simonsen, 319 Or. 510, 514, 878 P.2d 409 (1994) (Simonsen II). Accordingly, this court again vacated the sentence and remanded the case for a third penalty-phase proceeding. Id. at 519, 878 P.2d 409. At the close of that proceeding, the jury again answered the penalty-phase questions in the affirmative and the trial court sentenced defendant to death. This automatic review followed.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/or-supreme-court/1415715.html
