After her arrest last August, Weiss spent 12 days in Jefferson County Jail before a judge ruled she should be allowed to await trial while on house arrest.
Weiss is required to wear an ankle monitor and needed to get approval before she could go to the grocery store, the library and to the common areas of her subdivision where she tends to the plants. She is prohibited from nonessential travel.
Weiss is convinced she's being used as a pawn in Schmitt's campaign for Senate. She points out that the man Schmitt hopes to replace, Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), announced his retirement on March 8, 2021, and five days days later an investigator with Schmitt's office re-interviewed Simms. Weiss says she believes Schmitt's cold-case squad is trying to score a win against someone they believe wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.
"I'm 65 years old. I'm disabled. I'm low income," Weiss says. "The only reason I could afford an attorney is because I own a house and I got a home equity loan."
She adds, "They didn't give the Avery case all the press they gave me, because that was before Schmitt decided to run for Senate."
Weiss says that so far she's spent around $63,000 on legal fees, and the sum is only increasing.
"I had a nice, quiet retirement planned, which did not include taking out a mortgage on my house or paying huge legal fees," she says.
A preliminary hearing in Weiss' case is set for this Wednesday, July 20. The prosecution will call witnesses.
As of right now, Eric Simms is likely to be among them.
"If my cousin shows up, he will be cross examined," Weiss says. "It will be brutal."
