Ex-school counselor pleads guilty to reduced charges for murder

MARSHALL, Mo. -- A former middle school counselor accused in the death of his 8-year-old son has entered a guilty plea to reduced murder charges.

Tolliver J. Simonton has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to class A felony murder in the second degree.

In July, Simonton's first-degree murder conviction was reversed by the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District.

The appeals court ordered that the case be sent back to the Saline County Circuit Court for retrial after finding that former Circuit Judge Robert Ravenhill had erred in not allowing the testimony of a psychologist who would have said Simonton had a mental illness.

Simonton's original sentence had been life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Richard Hicks, Missouri assistant attorney general, filed the amended charges Wednesday. After Simonton's plea, the new life sentence could allow for the possibility of parole.

Tate Simonton was found dead of asphyxiation, or a lack of oxygen to the brain, in the family's home at Marshall in February 1997. Simonton's then-wife, Jeanne, was out of town at a teachers seminar when the boy died.