Murder of Jimmy Sims by Ronald Robinson spotlighted on ID

The murder of boxing coach Jimmy Sims is spotlighted in this episode of A Murder in Texas on Investigation Discovery.

Sims was a former Navy boxing champion and in civilian life he’d set up his own gym, where he trained young fighters throughout the 1980s and tried to give something back to the community. Sims was like a father figure to many of his young fighters and tried to give them a chance they would not get anywhere else. His gym was often recommended and one such referral was Flor Robinson and her young son, Ronnie Robinson Jr., who was being bullied.

It was this referral that was to prove deadly for Sims, as he and Flor began what would become a six year affair.

Later Ronnie Jr. became something of a bully himself and in high school he and his buddies began acting like a gang. Sims tried reaching out to Ronnie Jr. but with no luck and he eventually gave up.

He also becomes worried about his own son, who’d been having problems. Sims began to drink heavily but his wife helped him back on the straight and narrow and after he came clean about the affair, the pair repaired their damaged marriage.

Then on Sept. 5, 1991, Sims’ wife Jeneanne heard gun shots and ran outside with her own gun and confronted several masked gun men. They were standing over Sims and continued to shoot him as he lay on the ground. They then fled the scene and Sims later died in hospital from his wounds.

Police spoke to several witnesses but none of them were able to give good descriptions of the two men, though Jeneanne did think she recognised Ronnie Robinson Jr. through his eyes.

Jeneanne told the police that she knew about the affair and that it had gone on for six years. That was until Jim’s son Rafe went over to Ronald Robinson’s house and told him about the affair his father was having with Robinson’s wife, something Ronald already knew about.

Jeneanne told investigators that she and Jim bounced back from the affair and started to get their marriage back on track. Ronald Robinson was known for abusing his wife and had also boasted to fellow workers how he made her take part in threesomes and other sexual activity against her will. However, he was enraged that she’d gone had an affair and he began sending threatening notes and even tried to get Sims to have a threesome.

Ronnie Robinson Jr. had also taken the news of the affair hard and police initially suspected he or his father might be involved. Despite their efforts to prove the crime was a murder for hire, the case soon went cold and and Sims’ murder went unsolved.

Then in 2005, more than 13 years after the murder, police arrested Ronald Robinson, then 54, and Robert Dwain Mason, 33, and charged the pair with capital murder.

In September 2007 Robinson was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Mason had earlier pleaded guilty to the murder and told police that Robinson had hired him to carry out the killing.

Robinson appealed his conviction but in 2015 his appeal was rejected and his original conviction was affirmed.

A Murder in Texas airs at 9:00 PM on Investigation Discovery.