Once a star on the football field former running back, Marquiz Simpkins from Clinton High School now has a jail-house mugshot.
He is facing charges in a home invasion robbery.
Simpkins has a very different story of what happened Saturday night.
The door the victim claims was kicked in by Simpkins is still damaged, after she said he entered the home with two other young men.
She said the three pointed guns and demanded money, and that when she told them she didn’t have any they left.
But, Simpkins, a former star running back from Clinton High School, said he didn’t do it, and that he’s being unfairly targeted.
“In this small place. They just do what they want,” he said.
He said he was home visiting family for the holidays.
“My grandpa lives three blocks away, and my truck was parked,” he said.
A truck that a neighbor claimed she saw two men run to and drive off in after the alleged attempted robbery.
“They took me, took my truck and searched it for guns, they said,” he said. “There were no guns in there.”
That’s when he said police took him back to the victim’s home.
“They took me to be identified by the woman, but they didn’t let me out of the car,” he said.
Simpkins believes the woman couldn’t clearly see his face on what he said was a dark street.
He feels police had their minds made up that he was guilty and had weapons.
“But, there were no guns in my house,” he said. “They ran in my house my aunt told me with their guns out.”
He spent the next three days in jail before bonding on for $500.
We attempted to talk to Clinton Police, but they declined an interview.
