Simcox Charged After Scottsdale Airbnb Shooting

No one was hit. An infant was asleep in the house the bullets struck, and that is the risk the court weighed when it set a cash-only bond. Self-defense is an argument for a later hearing. The video and the casings are evidence for that hearing.

Matthew Lee Simcox, 18, of Apache Junction is charged in Maricopa County with discharging a firearm at an occupied home, disorderly conduct with a deadly weapon, and endangerment. A judge found probable cause on the counts and set bond at $250,000 cash only. Prosecutors had asked for $350,000 cash only. He is being held in the Maricopa County jail.

Scottsdale police were called about 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 11 to a short-term rental near 73rd Place and Papago Drive. His older brother had rented the house. Investigators found 58 shell casings on the porch and in the street. Three bullets struck a house across the street. One hit a wall opposite a room where an infant was sleeping. No one was hurt.

Police say a Ring camera shows Simcox, in a gray sweatshirt, firing a handgun toward the street and the house across from the rental, then picking up casings. His lawyer, Carissa Jakobe, told the judge that if that is him on the video, he fired in self-defense after someone in a passing car shot first. The defense said he has no prior criminal record.

Investigators say ballistics linked a casing from the porch to an Oct. 3 shooting in Mesa. No one else has been charged. Simcox is due back for a status conference on Nov. 17 and a preliminary hearing on Nov. 19.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.