Parole board votes to free Paula Sims, who killed two infant daughters in 1980s

By Robert Patrick

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    ILLINOIS (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) — The Illinois Prisoner Review Board on Thursday voted 12-1 to approve parole for Paula Sims, the Alton woman who admitted killing her two infant daughters in the late 1980s.

The sole “no” vote was from board member Jared Bohland, Sims’ lawyer, Jed Stone, said.

Stone said the hearing lasted about 90 minutes, and several board members asked “thoughtful, pointed” questions. The Madison County state’s attorney had also written a letter opposing parole.

Stone said he was allowed to call Sims, 62, at Logan Correctional Center in central Illinois to tell her the news. “I think she was grateful, happy,” he said. “She was grateful to the board for listening and finding in her favor.”

Stone said Sims had about 20 supporters at the hearing.

No date has been set for her release. Stone said a parole agent would have to approve her living arrangements. She will be living in Decatur, Illinois, at a home arranged by her employer, Words Matter Publishing, he said, adding, “They’ve known Paula for years.”

Stone said, “I’m hopeful it will happen before the weekend.”

Sims has been serving a life sentence after being convicted in 1990 in the death of her 6-week-old daughter, Heather. She later admitted to the 1986 death of another infant, Loralei. In both deaths, she initially claimed that an intruder broke in and kidnapped the girls.

Asked about her crime, Stone said, “There’s not a day that goes by that Paula doesn’t think about how horrific her crime was. And when she doesn’t feel responsibility and remorse and shame for her acts. But as I said to the board this morning, 32 years in prison without a single major violation … that’s a remarkable feat.

“This woman is not a violent person. She’s not an evil person. She’s a person who suffered from a mental illness. And that mental illness is gone,” he said.

Stone said Sims suffered from postpartum psychosis, a relatively rare disorder that, like the more common postpartum depression, has been linked to hormonal changes before and after childbirth. “So she poses no threat to anyone,” he said.

“The thing about Paula is that she has a very hopeful outlook on life and she is a profoundly religious person. Those two things got her through this and will get her through the balance of her life,” he said.

Madison County prosecutors declined to comment Thursday. The county’s top prosecutor, Thomas Haine, submitted a letter at the end of August to the parole board, arguing Sims repeatedly lied to police, doctors, family members and jurors when she denied culpability in the deaths and instead said the babies were abducted by a masked man.

Haine’s father, William Haine, was Madison County’s state’s attorney when Sims was prosecuted.

In a statement, Illinois Senate Republicans criticized the vote as well as the state board for a lack of transparency and the number of members who have not been confirmed.

“Yet again, the 14-member Prisoner Review Board, 10 of which are acting and serving unconfirmed, has voted to release another individual who has committed heinous, unspeakable crimes,” said a statement by Republican Sens. Jason Plummer of Edwardsville, Terri Bryant of Murphysboro, and Steve McClure of Springfield.

Sims initially claimed her daughters had been kidnapped. The first, Loralei, disappeared in 1986 when the family was living near Brighton, a small Illinois community split between Macoupin and Jersey counties. The infant was less than 2 weeks old. Her skeletal remains were later found in a wooded area near the Sims’ home.

Six-week-old Heather was reported missing in 1989 after they’d moved to Alton. Sims once again claimed an intruder abduction. The body was found by a fisherman in a trash can in West Alton.

The case drew national attention at the time, and was eventually moved from Edwardsville to Peoria, Illinois, for the trial.

After she was convicted of Heather’s murder, obstructing justice and concealing a death, Sims admitted killing both infants. She also had a son, whom she gave birth to in between the two girls.

Stone had been filing petitions for a new trial and clemency since the ‘90s. Sims’ ex-husband, Robert Sims, argued against her release in 2006. He and their son, Randall, were killed in an auto accident in Mississippi in 2015.

Earlier this year, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker commuted Sims’ sentence of life without parole, making her eligible for Thursday’s review hearing.

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