A Colorado Springs career criminal with an extensive and violent record in El Paso County was never in compliance with probation or parole before a string of alleged crimes earlier this year, including first-degree murder, according to documents obtained by The Gazette. 

Deka Simmons — who will appear in 4th Judicial District Court for her preliminary hearing on Thursday afternoon — was a suspect in the death of Daxcimo Ceja two months before being arrested. Yet her probation officer asked to have her probation regranted on two occasions after Simmons was arrested in connection with two different crimes, posting bond just days before her arrest on suspicion of first-degree murder, court records show. 

Further investigation showed that the day after Simmons, 38, accepted a plea deal in Lincoln County and was released from jail, Ceja was killed in Colorado Springs. 

Simmons' extensive criminal background raises questions among some experts on how she was able to continue to be granted probation revocation and plea deals, despite those working with her insisting she had not been rehabilitated and remained a danger to the community. 

Past

Simmons' first recorded run-in with the Colorado Springs police was in 2002 at just 18 years old, when she faced charges of felony menacing and third-degree assault with a deadly weapon, the first of more than seven weapons-related allegations. 

Later that same year, in November 2002, Simmons would pick up what would be her first of three first-degree murder accusations. The district attorney’s office ultimately dismissed the murder accusations against Simmons, but less than three months later, Simmons found herself facing another allegation of first-degree murder. According to police records obtained by The Gazette, Simmons was accused of being involved in the shooting death of Donna Oliveto, a former inmate with her in the El Paso County jail. 

The arrest affidavit for Simmons details that she and her boyfriend at the time, Jeff Hoskins, were at the residence of Oliveto, and Simmons was paranoid that Oliveto was working for the police. 

“I guess she was an agent,” Simmons told a friend of hers the same night as the murder, according to the affidavit. 

The affidavit also states that Simmons stole Oliveto’s white Pontiac Grand-Am after her murder. 

Because Hoskins was the one who pulled the trigger, Simmons was charged with accessory to murder and sentenced to 12 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. 

However, a social media post from June 2017 from the mother of Oliveto's son paints a much different picture of Simmons' involvement in the murder, calling her the "mastermind" of the plot. 

"Deka J Simmons, at age 20, along with Jeffery S Hoskins, smoked an overabundance amount of Meth, mistakenly determined that Donna was an informant for the police (which she was not), on an upcoming attempted murder trial that Deka was facing, drove to Donna's house, and executed her for no reason," the woman wrote on Facebook. "These two individuals had no regard for Donna, her son or any relationship that Donna had in this world. My son lost his mother that day, Her family lost a wonderful daughter, sister and aunt."

The woman did not respond to a request for an interview from The Gazette. 

While 12 years may seem like a light sentence to some, Jonathan Caudill, a criminology professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and a former probation officer, said this was the harshest possible penalty Simmons could have received for the crime, and that she remained in prison for the entire length of her sentence. 

Despite being in prison, the violent crimes did not stop for Simmons.

According to court records, Simmons was charged with assault twice in prison between 2003 and 2004, including an incident where she assaulted an officer, which added two years to her prison sentence. According to records from the Department of Corrections obtained by The Gazette, there were 35 prison incidents logged by Simmons between 2004 and 2015 including fighting, assault, verbal abuse and more.

The continued incidents while incarcerated kept Simmons from being paroled early, as records indicate her parole request was denied numerous times before she was released on her mandatory release date in 2016 after spending 14 years in prison. 

Violations of Simmons’ parole would shortly follow her release. In 2017 court records show Simmons was found guilty of weapon possession by a previous offender. Documents from the Department of Corrections show that a parole officer found brass knuckles and knives when searching her Colorado Springs motel room.

She was sentenced to two years in prison, with credit for 110 days served. After being released in 2019, again on parole, she was quickly back in prison for second-degree assault after stabbing her stepfather after a verbal altercation over custody of Simmons' child at a liquor store in north Colorado Springs, according to police records.

In total, Simmons was paroled three times and had parole revoked three times, according to records from the Department of Corrections. 

For the 2019 stabbing incident, Simmons accepted a plea agreement from the district attorney's office and received three years of probation following her 90-day prison sentence.

Had she been found guilty in a jury trial, Simmons would have faced a mandatory prison sentence of between five and 16 years, according to Colorado law. 

Caudill points to a potential reason for the plea agreement and subsequent light sentence for Simmons as a result of the current direction of the criminal justice system. Caudill said prisons are attempting to decrease their populations and that some evidence points to convicts having a better chance at rehabilitation out in the community, rather than in prison.

This mindset described by Caudill can be seen in the Colorado Department of Correction's inmate figures over the past 10 years. 

According to statistics from the Colorado Department of Corrections website, the total inmate population in Colorado from December 2009 to December 2019 dropped by nearly 3,000 inmates. 

While on probation, Simmons added two new cases to her record in Weld and Lincoln counties: possession of a firearm by a previous offender dated Nov. 9, 2020, and third-degree assault causing reckless injury and child abuse dated Sept. 8, 2020. 

The possession of a firearm by a previous offender charges in Weld County were dismissed with prejudice in District Court, but the assault causing reckless injury and child abuse charges in Lincoln County landed Simmons 180 days of jail time after accepting a plea deal, with credit for 180 days served, according to court records. 

Court records show she accepted the plea deal on Feb. 15, 2022. 

Probation revocation documents show that on Nov. 13, 2020, and April 6, 2021, a probation officer recommended that Simmons’ probation be revoked and she serve time in jail for her probation violations. 

2022 arrest, first-degree murder charge

On Feb. 16, 2022, one day after her plea agreement in Lincoln County, Daxcimo Ceja was killed. 

Nearly two months later Simmons was arrested by Colorado Springs police and faces three charges in Ceja's death, including first-degree murder. 

The Gazette filed a records request with Colorado's 4th Judicial District Court for the probable cause affidavit in Simmons' arrest, but those records have been sealed by the court. 

Simmons’ criminal activity in El Paso County at this time wasn’t a mystery to the Colorado Springs police. On Feb. 22, 2022, six days after the death of Ceja, a CSPD officer contacted the Department of Corrections to request information on Simmons. 

“Offender is a suspect in a intel situation where she is running around with guns, has shot at people and reported to have taken a life," the report states.

The report goes on to say the investigation had only just started due to a tip from a confidential informant. 

Simmons wouldn’t be arrested on suspicion of murder until nearly two months later on April 7, 2022. During this two-month period Simmons added a pair of new allegations to her rap sheet, one in an incident involving robbery with a weapon at a tow lot; and another involving felony menacing with a weapon. 

Despite Simmons' prior convictions, new charges and suspicion of a possible murder, on March 25 and April 1, 2022, probation officers did not request that Simmons’ probation be revoked entirely, but rather "be revoked and re-granted with the original terms and conditions.” 

The April 1 probation revocation was amended on April 6, one day before Simmons was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, to account for charges Simmons was now facing for first-degree murder. 

“Probation new recommendation is probation be revoked, and the defendant serve a period in the department of correction,” the document states. 

Jon Sarche, a spokesperson for the Colorado Judicial Department, declined to comment on the reasoning behind the probation officer's decision, saying, "We can’t comment on internal deliberations of the type that went into that decision, so we’re unable to grant an interview."

CSPD did not respond to requests for comment from The Gazette. 

According to court records, Simmons was arrested on March 23 for the felony menacing charges and posted a $2,000 bond the next day to be released from county jail. The alleged murder and robbery happened just more than a month prior to the felony menacing. 

Court records show she was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder on April 7, 2022. 

Caudill said that while he can't be sure why probation requested to have Simmons' probation regranted, it's indicative of the current direction of criminal justice in the United States. 

"In recent years we've become more focused on rehabilitation and restoration, rather than incarceration and punishment like in the past," Caudill said. "Some people slip through the cracks. ... With these changes you can see why someone with concerns could be put back into the community."  

Caudill said he believes probation officers in this case may have had concerns over her mental health, and that they could have believed that Simmons receiving treatment would be the best path in her rehabilitation, rather than prison.      

"This is very speculative but ... I suspect that they (probation officers) believe the origin of behavior is some serious mental health issues," Caudill said. "Looking for ways to motivate the individuals to take the treatment route could be heavy in their decision making."

Professor Kimora,  an expert on probation and parole with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said an overburden on local probation officers and a lack of education can lead to situations where probation revocation is being requested for someone who is an active danger to the community. 

"They’re (probation officers) doing the best they can with the resources they got. … They need funding and qualified people to help," Kimora said. "Some of these people don’t have enough education to know that you can’t let people out like that."

Kimora also said it is "unfortunately" common for departments within the same city to not communicate with each other, leading to situations where probation potentially didn't know Simmons was a murder suspect. 

"In a perfect world, they should (communicate). ... If more departments were coordinated, that would be great," Kimora said. "But it's a political game, they want to say, 'Oh look we did it.'" 

Caudill echoed the statements of Kimora, stating that agencies like the police department and probation office can work together, but oftentimes don't. 

"They have the ability to do that, but sometimes there's a tendency for them not to work together," Caudill said. "Sometimes they just have conflicting goals."

Does the system work?

It’s clear that those in contact with Simmons over the past 10 years were concerned about her behavior. 

In 2013, a parole officer in a parole hearing expressed major concerns with Simmons and her behavior while she was still incarcerated. 

“You appear to be a pretty violent person,” the parole officer told Simmons at the time. 

The officer noted that Simmons had seven prison discipline convictions in 2013 alone and that it “almost looks like you’re trying to set a record.”

Simmons would go on to refuse to attend her parole hearings in 2014 and 2015, according to audio recordings obtained by The Gazette. 

In 2020 during a parole hearing, Simmons' parole supervisor expressed significant concerns over her behavior. The parole officer said that while on parole in 2019, Simmons had four police contacts, multiple curfew violations, continued to use drugs, left the area of parole, tampered with her electronic monitoring device and stabbed someone. 

“Simmons is posing a risk to the community,” the parole officer stated during the hearing. 

When asked about reinstating the terms of parole, the officer said, “If I did that again, nothing would change.” 

Despite those concerns Simmons was released into the community.

Kimora, however, looks at Simmons' case and sees a failure not in the direction the criminal justice system is heading, but the effectiveness of rehabilitation.   

"Given all the work I’ve done in this field, somebody is not doing their job," Kimora said. "Parole and probation officers needed to help this woman."

The failure of the rehabilitation of people like Simmons is not uncommon, Kimora said, and the lack of resources for prisoners and parolees leads to never-ending crime spirals, like that of Simmons. 

"She needed some help while she was in there. Contradictory to what’s going in jails and prisons around the country," Kimora said. "The attitude often seems to be, 'We're just going to lock them up.'" 

Simmons herself even speaks to this in a parole hearing from 2020, when she mentions to her parole officer that after 14 years in prison she needed help getting back into the real world, and that she felt she never got the help she requested. 

This was dismissed by the parole officer who said that Simmons was not actively going to the rehab program she was required to as part of her parole, according to parole hearing audio obtained by The Gazette. 

Simmons is being held in El Paso County jail on a no-bond hold in the first-degree murder accusations. She will appear in court for her preliminary hearing on all three of her 2022 cases on Thursday.  

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