By Jim Schultz
Record Searchlight
SHASTA COUNTY, Calif. — A Red Bluff man awaiting trial in Shasta County Jail on attempted robbery, assault and other charges pleaded not guilty Wednesday to new charges alleging he tried to hire a hit man to kill his attempted robbery accuser.
Lucas Eugene Simpson, 31, was formally charged in Shasta County Superior Court with solicitation of murder.
According to a Shasta County sheriff’s summary of events report, detectives received a letter on Dec. 22 from a jail inmate who said he was approached by Simpson about “taking out” the alleged attempted robbery victim, Michael Wayne High, 30, of Shasta Lake.
The jail inmate was interviewed that day by detectives after the letter was received, and he told them Simpson offered him cash and his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to arrange for High’s killing before Simpson’s February trial begins.
The inmate was returned to jail, and a conversation between him and Simpson was subsequently recorded, which corroborated the information he told detectives, the sheriff ‘s report said.
Later confronted by detectives, Simpson initially denied trying to hire anyone to kill High, but then said they were just “comments,” the sheriff’s report said.
The Shasta County Public Defender’s office was appointed to represent Simpson, but he’ll be returned to court today to determine whether there’s a conflict of interest in that representation.
Simpson was arrested along with three others who are suspected of trying to steal High’s processed medical marijuana in late August by pretending to be SWAT-type officers.
It’s alleged that three of those four men went to High’s Shasta Lake home wearing tactical-style clothing and carrying weapons.
As they approached his Mason Drive home, sheriff ‘s deputies have said, the would-be robbers began yelling “search warrant, get on the ground,” in hopes High would believe they were law enforcement officials conducting a pot raid.
But High, who did not believe they were peace officers, began to fight with the men and was stabbed in the altercation, deputies have said.
One of them stabbed High in the back during a subsequent struggle, puncturing his spleen and diaphragm, deputies have said.
Simpson and two of his co-defendants - Chane Finch, 37, of Redding, and Michael Derek Johnson, 31, of Red Bluff - are scheduled to begin standing trial on the attempted robbery and other charges on Feb. 7. A former co-defendant, Michael Casey Houchins, 27, of Cottonwood, pleaded guilty last month to attempted robbery as part of a plea bargain that will place him on probation if he truthfully testifies during the trial of his former codefendants.
If he lies during that trial, he faces up to nine years in prison, Deputy District Attorney Emily Mees said. Houchins, who detectives said may have been the ringleader of the group, was at High’s home before the attack to allegedly repay a debt, an earlier sheriff’s report said.
The report said Houchins may have texted the other three men minutes before they arrived.
Following the stabbing, the men ran away, but not before one of them turned around and fired at least two rounds toward High, the sheriff’s report says.
The bullets missed their mark.
The men did not take marijuana or anything else from inside the home, the report added.
Simpson is accused of assaulting a Shasta Lake man in an attempt to steal medical marijuana.
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