Left: Joshua Lee Simmons appears in a booking photo; Right: Simmons allegedly appears in surveillance footage from a smash-and-grab. (El Monte Police Department)
A California man already charged with the grisly murder of an aspiring musician late last year has now been charged in connection with a second, much earlier, homicide in the Los Angeles area.
Joshua Lee Simmons, 37, was charged earlier this month with the murder of Anthony James Soloc, 50, who was fatally shot in Inglewood, a city in Los Angeles County, in January 2023. He also faces special circumstances allegations, akin to sentencing enhancements, now that he has been charged with multiple murders.
In October 2023, the defendant was charged with the murder of Javonnta Marshann Murphy, 32, an up-and-coming rapper known as Sirtanky who had just released an EP in the months before his demise.
Murphy’s death was a shock to the residents of Malibu, another independent city in far western Los Angeles County, after his body was discovered sealed in a barrel there off the Pacific Coast Highway.
Prosecutors believe Simmons shot Murphy to death on July 27, 2023, and then disposed of his body in a 55-gallon plastic drum, according to The Los Angeles Times. A maintenance worker noticed the barrel three days later, floating in shallow inlet waters of Malibu Lagoon State Beach, and hauled it to shore — but did not open it. The next day, the barrel had made its way back to the lagoon and was spotted by a lifeguard who pulled it ashore again and, noticing its suspicious weight, opened the container to make the sad and shocking find.
Inside, the victim was not wearing any clothes; his body was not in an advanced state of decomposition, authorities told the LA Times.
The barrel used to conceal the young man’s body had markings that suggested it came from a printing company, authorities say.
“At about 8 p.m., there’s a high tide here, and there’s a possibility that the container could have come in from the ocean and then got stuck in the lagoon — but we don’t know,” sheriff’s department homicide Lt. Hugo Reynaga told the Times.
Simmons is also charged with making criminal threats against a man on the same day he allegedly shot Murphy to death. Additionally, he is charged with one count of attempted robbery and two counts of criminal threats for a failed jewelry store heist in September 2023.
Murphy was also part of the hip-hop duo Tank & Booq.
“He was a good kid, good person,” family friend Patrick Nelson, who considered himself a kind of stepfather to Murphy, told the Times. “He didn’t gang-bang. What happened to him, I just don’t understand.”
Little is known about Soloc aside from his coroner’s report — which identifies his cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head. The shooting reportedly occurred around 5 a.m. on the day in question.
It is unclear if the deaths of Murphy and Soloc are related aside from the alleged assailant. Law&Crime reached out to the sheriff’s office for details on other possible connections between the victims, but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
A second man, Dennis Eugene Vance, 41, stands accused of accessory to murder after the fact for allegedly helping Simmons try and cover up Murphy’s murder. He is currently out on $50,000 bond.
