Sister defends homicide suspect

Alice Riccardi said she never enjoyed being around Michael Simonson.

She felt Simonson was a bully who pushed around people smaller than him, including her twin brother, Elvis Riccardi.

Simonson, 32, of Plains Township, and Elvis Riccardi, 31, of Wilkes-Barre, were charged on Monday in the kidnapping, robbery and beating death of Donald “Donnie” Skiff, 34, on April 27.

Skiff’s decomposed body was found in woods off Suscon Road in Jenkins Township last Thursday.

Investigators suspect the two men killed Skiff, of Plymouth, for money. They attempted to use Skiff’s bank card to withdraw cash from his account, prosecutors alleged.

“If he (Riccardi) did do this to Donny, he deserves what he gets, but I think he was coerced by Mike (Simonson),” Alice Riccardi said. “My brother is the most gentle person you would ever want to meet. He’s a totally different person than what everyone is making him out to be. He’s not an animal. If he did do this, I honestly think he was threatened.”

Alice Riccardi said her brother and Simonson were at her Columbia County, home on April 26, the day before Skiff was last seen near a bar in Shickshinny. She said her brother and their mother, Audrey Riccardi, were arguing in the kitchen and Simonson overheard them.

“Elvis said some nasty things and Mike (Simonson) said to my brother, ‘If you ever talk to your mother that way in front of me again, I’ll crush your (expletive) skull,’ ” Alice Riccardi said. “Mike said he loves our mother like she’s his mother.”

After Simonson allegedly offered to harm Alice’s husband, Alice said she told Elvis never to bring him around her family again.

“In my opinion, Elvis was eerie of Mike, he felt threatened by him,” Alice said.

Simonson and Elvis Riccardi called each other a “rat” and each threatened to kill the other after they were charged with Skiff’s homicide on Monday.

The two men have spent time behind bars for other crimes, including stints in state prison, according to court papers.

Simonson was jailed at the county prison in May 2000, when he overpowered a correctional officer in a control booth. He threatened to stab the officer with a pen and throw hot coffee on him. He was sentenced to three months on charges of having weapons or implements to escape and criminal attempt to escape.

In November 2002, Simonson was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in prison for assaulting police officers during a domestic dispute involving a woman in Luzerne. He was also sentenced in December 2005 to 18 to 36 months in jail for assaulting a man outside a Plains Township alternative nightclub.

In January 2006, Simonson was sentenced to 13 to 36 months in prison for stealing a 1997 Lincoln Town Car from a Kingston home.

Simonson was charged by Plains Township police in November 2008 with stealing a 2000 GMC Sonoma pickup from a service station on state Route 315. He was jailed in February when he failed to appear for a court hearing, but a county judge released him on March 24, according to court records.

Simonson is also facing charges that he assaulted his girlfriend in Union Township and stole a vehicle from a convenience store lot in Wilkes-Barre in May.

Riccardi was sentenced in October 1996 to 15 to 30 months in state prison on drug charges and was sent back to state prison for three months to seven years in March 2000 for setting a fire in a cell at the county prison.

Records from the state Department of Corrections say Riccardi was paroled in April 2003. He violated parole in May 2004, October 2005, October 2006 and May 2007 and was finally released in August 2007, according to the state.