A Roanoke Circuit Court jury watched a pornographic video as prosecutors presented evidence during a murder trial Thursday. After about six hours of deliberation, it found the defendant guilty of fatally shooting a man outside her apartment complex last year.
Jâmya Tiona Stimpson, 23, who was a self-employed OnlyFans creator at the time of the fatal shooting, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter Friday in connection with the Feb. 15, 2023, killing of 29-year-old Matthew Jerome Brown.
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Prosecutors presented evidence Thursday that Stimpson and Brown had known each other for about six months. Among the evidence were text messages discussing a possible pregnancy and abortion, as well as Cash App money requests and transfers, between Stimpson and Brown.
During her testimony, Stimpson denied being intimate with Brown, but when Assistant Commonwealthâs Attorney Sheri Mason confronted her with evidence of a pornographic video of the couple, Stimpson admitted that she and Brown had made OnlyFans content together.
Stimpson told Mason that she made that admission because her family was in the courtroom, and she did not want the video played. But later, as Masonâs questions continued, she said, âYou can show the video.â
Judge David Carson gave a nod of approval to Mason, who hit play.
âIs that you?â Mason asked Stimpson.
âYes, maâam,â Stimpson testified.
âWhoâs under you?â Mason asked.
âMatthew, possibly,â Stimpson said.
Mason argued that the underwear Brown was wearing in the video, filmed on Feb. 12, 2023, according to seized cellular data, was the same underwear that rescue personnel cut off of his body to locate his injuries at the scene of the shooting three days later.
On Feb. 15, Roanoke police responded shortly after 2 p.m. to reports about a man with a gunshot wound in the 3500 block of Ferncliff Avenue Northwest, at the Ferncliff Apartments. The complex is across the street from William Fleming High School, which was briefly placed on a hold and secure due to the shooting.
City police officers testified Thursday that when they first arrived on scene, they found Brown lying face down in a grassy area near a complex leasing office. He was surrounded by complex maintenance employees, and someone had placed a quilted blanket over top of him.
He later died during surgery at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Brown sustained two gunshot wounds, one to his chin, which fractured his jawbone, and one to his back, which Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Amy Tharp testified was fatal.
Police spoke with witnesses who said they observed a Black woman wearing glasses, a black top and jeans shoot Brown and then run away with a gun in her hand.
Two maintenance men testified Thursday that they had observed Brown and Stimpson walking together on the complex grounds, and while they heard Stimpson tell Brown to leave her alone and not to touch her, they did not believe that anyone was in danger. The men said they did not hear anyone yelling or calling for help.
State police started an investigation at the scene and Stimpson came out of one of the apartment buildings, according to testimony. A body camera video shows her wearing glasses, a black top and jeans.
The video captures the officer asking Stimpson if she was involved in the shooting incident. Stimpson replied, âYes.â
Detectives learned in an interview that Stimpson met Brown about six months before the shooting. In January, after Stimpson said she was beaten and abused by Brown, she obtained protective orders against him.
An emergency protective order went into effect Jan. 13, then a preliminary one on Jan. 18 and a permanent one on Jan. 25. Brown appealed the protective order that same day, but on the pairâs next hearing date, neither Brown or Stimpson appeared in court, so the case was dismissed.
On Feb. 15, she said she took her children to school and ran some errands. When she returned to her apartment, Brown was there.
Stimpson said she asked Brown to leave and to be gone by the time she returned again. But before she left, she said she took a revolver from on top of her kitchen cabinet, placing it in her waistband.
Stimpson testified that the firearm was her grandfatherâs, and that her cousin, Darreonta Lamar Reynolds, had given the gun to her in January after she had obtained the protective order. Reynolds was acquitted on fatal shooting charges in Roanoke in 2019.
âI just got it for protection, thatâs all,â Stimpson told detectives Feb. 15, adding that she had never previously owned or fired a gun.
When she came back to the apartment complex a second time, Stimpson said she saw Brownâs car.
âAs scared as you were, you stayed there,â Mason said.
At some point, while walking around outside, Stimpson testified that Brown appeared.
Near the leasing office, Stimpson testified that Brown grabbed her arm, which she jerked away, and then pulled on her shirt. She said he got in front of her, and she pulled the revolver out of her waistband. Stimpson said Brown walked towards her, and she started shooting. He kept walking, and she kept firing the gun until she said she saw him âgoing down.â
Stimpson returned to her apartment, where she left the gun on her sofa. Police seized it later and found that eight of the nine rounds in the gun had been fired.
âShe almost emptied the gun on him,â Assistant Commonwealthâs Attorney Alice Ekirch told the jury Thursday.
Stimpsonâs attorney, public defender Brian Barnett, said the shooting was reasonable given the domestic violence that Stimpson had experienced. The defense attorney called three other women to testify about previous incidents of physical abuse at the hands of Brown.
One of those women said she was hospitalized in 2020 because Brown had beat her. Another said Brown brandished a gun at her later that same year. The third said she had a romantic relationship with Brown near the end of 2020, but he became sexually violent, and so she obtained a protective order against him. She said she now has post-traumatic stress disorder and knee pain.
âIf they felt that way, she felt that way,â Barnett told the jury. âShe did what was reasonable under the circumstances.â
Stimpson told detectives Feb. 15 that she didnât want to shoot Brown, who she characterized as unpredictable and manipulative. A toxicology report found that he had marijuana in his system at the time of his death, and police found a knife clipped on the interior of his pants.
âI was just going with what I felt was best for me at that moment,â Stimpson told detectives.
But Mason argued that if the jury was going to consider Brownâs behavior in years and months prior to the shooting, they needed to consider Stimpsonâs previous âlovey-doveyâ behavior, as well.
âShe has to twist and change her story to make herself look better and make him look like an evil person,â Mason said.
âSheâs trying to wield a shield of domestic violence,â Ekirch said. âShe is playing around with the system.â
Barnett argued that the justice system failed Stimpson.
Mason and Ekirch told the jury that they donât condone domestic violence.
âIf there was violence inflicted on the defendant by Mr. Brown, it was unacceptable,â Mason said.
But Ekirch said Brown did not deserve to be shot and killed.
Stimpson had been out of jail on a $10,000 secured bond as she awaited trial, but she was remanded into the custody of the Roanoke City Sheriffâs Office Friday once the jury announced its verdict.
Brownâs aunt, Michelle Hall, said Friday afternoon that while it was a âlong time coming,â the jury did what it was supposed to do, and now âjustice is served.â She said Brownâs family looks forward to telling his story and finding more closure at Stimpsonâs sentencing hearing, which is set for July 8.