Court records described repeated legal intervention involving Ashley Silverman and Jason Simpson before police charged Simpson with her June death.
CECILTON, Md. — Long before Jason Timothy Simpson was charged with murdering Ashley Silverman, courts and police had repeatedly encountered allegations of violence involving the pair, a history that investigators revisited after Silverman was found dead in a Cecilton home.
The earlier cases now form an important part of the background to a second-degree murder prosecution that followed Silverman’s June 18 death. Maryland State Police identified Simpson and Silverman as 28-year-old Cecilton residents when announcing the murder charge in late August. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Silverman’s death a homicide caused by asphyxiation. Police have not publicly announced a motive, and the pending charge does not establish Simpson’s guilt.
Reporting based on Cecil County court records shows that the relationship had drawn law-enforcement attention well before the homicide investigation. Law&Crime, citing The Cecil Whig, reported that Simpson was convicted of second-degree assault after an incident in September 2024 in which he was accused of charging at Silverman with a knife after she took his phone. A judge sentenced him to two years in prison but suspended the sentence and placed him on probation for 18 months.
That conviction did not end the legal disputes. About 10 days later, according to the same reporting, Simpson was arrested again after allegedly choking Silverman. The arrest was reported as a violation of both his probation and a protective order that was then in effect. Those allegations were separate from Silverman’s later death, but they established a documented history that investigators could examine when the June medical-distress call developed into a homicide case.
Other court activity continued into 2026. State court filing records show domestic-violence and child-abuse matters naming Silverman and Simpson were filed in Cecil County in April. Law&Crime reported that Simpson told detectives after Silverman’s death that he and Silverman had a history of domestic violence and that a judge had recently approved a protective order against him. The precise terms and procedural status of every protective-order matter could not be independently confirmed from the public material reviewed for this report.
The homicide investigation began during the early morning of June 18. Maryland State Police said troopers from the North East Barrack were sent to the 100 block of West Main Street in Cecilton at about 1:45 a.m. for a person reported to be in medical distress. They found Silverman at the residence and pronounced her dead at the scene. Simpson was also there. Police said he initially was charged in connection with an unrelated incident, without identifying that matter in their Aug. 28 homicide announcement.
Simpson gave detectives an account that placed Silverman in the backyard shortly before her death. Court documents described in local reporting say Simpson claimed Silverman came to the house the night before, knocked on the door and repeatedly said she wanted to kill herself. He said that when nobody allowed her inside, she went around the house. Simpson said he turned his attention to two children who were crying and then, minutes later, saw Silverman hanging from a swing set in the backyard.
Detectives concluded that important parts of that account did not fit the physical scene. The swing set was about 155 feet from the house, according to the court documents, and the backyard was described as almost completely dark. Investigators determined that Simpson could not have seen Silverman hanging from the house as he had claimed. Police said they believed the scene had been staged. Simpson allegedly told officers he moved Silverman from the backyard into the residence using a wagon before contacting authorities.
The timing of the emergency call also drew scrutiny. Investigators said Simpson contacted his mother three times before waiting at least another 30 minutes to call 911. His statements about his mother changed as well, according to the reported court records. Simpson first indicated that she had been at the scene, but she later told investigators she had not. He also allegedly told police Silverman had been away from the residence for months, while neighbors reported seeing her there two days before her death.
The medical examiner’s findings changed the official character of the case. Silverman’s body was taken to Baltimore for an autopsy after she was pronounced dead. Maryland State Police later said the medical examiner ruled that she died by asphyxiation and classified the death as a homicide. Detectives from the State Police Homicide Unit investigated, while technicians from the Forensic Sciences Division processed evidence from the residence. After consultation with the Cecil County State’s Attorney’s Office, police charged Simpson with second-degree murder.
Investigators also documented Simpson’s behavior after Silverman’s death. According to court records reported by Law&Crime, Simpson began seeking dates on Tinder shortly after she died. He allegedly presented himself to prospective dates as a widower and said he had no “baby momma drama.” The statements became notable because Simpson had described himself to investigators as Silverman’s boyfriend and because the pair shared children. Police have not said that the dating-app activity alone was evidence of the killing, and it should not be treated as proof of guilt.
Silverman was the mother of four young children, according to Law&Crime’s account of the court records: 11-month-old twins and two boys, ages 3 and 4. The publication reported that at least two were children she shared with Simpson. Their existence also gave added context to the earlier domestic-violence matters and to Simpson’s alleged dating-profile description. Authorities have not publicly released detailed information about the children’s circumstances since their mother’s death.
The case also illustrates the difference between a record of prior accusations or convictions and the evidence required in a new criminal prosecution. Simpson’s previous second-degree assault conviction and reported protective-order violations are part of the documented history surrounding the pair, but prosecutors still must prove the murder charge based on admissible evidence tied to Silverman’s death. Similarly, investigators’ assertion that Simpson’s account was inconsistent with the scene remains an allegation to be tested through the court process.
Maryland State Police arrested Simpson without incident after consulting prosecutors and said he was being held without bond at the Cecil County Detention Center. WBAL-TV reported in late August that he also faced charges from a separate February incident involving Silverman and that the homicide case had a Nov. 24 court date. The outcome of intervening proceedings could not be confirmed in the reliable public sources reviewed as of Oct. 19.
State police continue to describe the homicide investigation as active. No final disposition of the second-degree murder case was located in the material reviewed for this report. Silverman’s earlier efforts to obtain court protection and the previous criminal cases involving Simpson remain significant context, but the pending homicide charge will ultimately turn on what prosecutors can establish about the events surrounding her death on June 18.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.