The mystery of who shot and killed two prosecutors this year clouded life in a rural county southeast of Dallas for more than two months, with investigators delving into possible leads that led to white-supremacist groups and Mexican drug cartels.
But in the end, it apparently came down to a bitter local grudge. A former justice of the peace, whose legal and political career collapsed in a hard-fought legal battle, was accused recently of killing the two prosecutors, who had been his courtroom rivals. His wife not only named him as the gunman, but also confessed to having been the driver in both shootings as part of her role in the vendetta, authorities said.
The shootings had alarmed elected officials and government employees across Texas, but the couple— Eric Lyle Williams and his wife, Kim Lene Williams (photo), both 46— is now behind bars at the Kaufman County jail.
“I find it hard to believe that someone could have written a novel with all these twists and turns in a small rural county in Texas,” said Bruce Wood, the county’s top elected official. “People are relieved but still stunned.”
The two prosecutors that the authorities say the couple conspired to kill had helped convict Williams last year on burglary and theft charges in a dispute about three computer monitors worth less than $1,500. The Williamses— he a portly, diabetic lawyer who volunteered with the Texas State Guard; she his ailing-yet-supportive wife of fifteen years— were accused of pulling off what even ruthless criminal organizations have rarely dared in modern times: the executions of two prosecutors, and the wife of one, to avenge a guilty verdict.
Williams was already being held at the Kaufman County jail on a three million dollar bond, accused of sending an anonymous email threatening another attack, when law enforcement officials announced that they had arrested his wife. She was charged with capital murder in connection with the slayings of the district attorney, Mike McLelland, 63; his wife, Cynthia McLelland, 65; and another prosecutor in McLelland’s office, Mark E. Hasse, 57.
Mrs. Williams joined her husband at the jail and was in custody on a ten million dollar bond. According to an affidavit filed by the authorities, Williams confessed to her involvement in the shootings in an interview with investigators, and told them that her husband had been the one who shot Hasse in January and McLelland and his wife in March. During her interview, she supplied investigators with details of both shootings that had not been made public. One law enforcement official confirmed that Williams was not a gunman in the murders, but had been the driver, and had also used the storage unit where Williams had kept a car and more than twenty guns.
The authorities had not yet formally charged Williams, her husband, with the three murders, though officials said they were preparing to and had called a news conference for Thursday afternoon. Before his arrest over the email, both Williams and one of his lawyers had repeatedly denied he had any involvement in the shootings. Williams had been a sought-after lawyer, a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a newly elected justice of the peace when he was accused of stealing the computer monitors from a county building in May of 2011. McLelland and Hasse handled the case, and helped persuade a jury to find Williams guilty in March 2012. He was removed from office and his law license was suspended. His state-issued peace officer license— Williams had nearly two decades of law enforcement training— was revoked. He and his lawyers were convinced that evidence used to convict him had been tampered with and that McLelland had prosecuted him to settle a political grudge, according to court documents. Without a county salary or the ability to practice law in the state, he was unemployed and under financial stress, documents state, so much so that the couple had tried to sell some of their old wedding gifts, including china and silverware, at a garage sale a few months ago.
Both Hasse and McLelland started to regularly carry handguns after Williams’ trial in March of 2012, because they believed Williams was a threat to their personal safety, the affidavit filed by the authorities stated. McLelland had told associates and those close to him before his death that he thought investigators should focus on whether Williams had killed Hasse or had someone do it, and he made no secret of his suspicions.
As a result, Williams’ emergence as a suspect shocked few here. But the news of the murder charge against his wife did. “The part about Eric’s wife being involved was a shocker,” said Bruce Bryant, the chief investigator in the district attorney’s office and a close friend of the McLellands’. “But it does feel like closure. I think I’ll probably sleep better tonight than I have in a long time.”
The Williams lived in a beige brick house in Kaufman down the street from her elderly parents. Though many in Kaufman had found Williams to be eccentric or even disturbing— a witness testified in his theft case that Williams once became so angry with another lawyer that he threatened to kill him and burn down his house— his wife was known as a shy, reserved woman who had stood by her husband and had even testified on his behalf in his theft case. A neighbor said she had rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue, and other ailments.
Shortly before he was sentenced last year in the theft case, Williams spoke of the turmoil the charges had caused his wife and her parents in a pre-sentencing report prepared by the state prison agency. “My life has taken a drastic turn,” he said in the April of 2012 report. “My wife of fourteen years is ill and on disability. My father- and mother-in-law are elderly and in need of medical attention; they moved to Texas so I could be a resource to them. If I do jail time, they and my wife will be the ones being punished.”
For weeks, investigators had failed to turn up any evidence to tie Williams to the murders, and they explored a host of theories that led them nowhere, including the possible involvement of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas prison gang. But a turning point came late Saturday afternoon, when the authorities arrived at a self-storage business a short drive from Kaufman. There, investigators say, they found a large storage unit where Williams had kept the car and the guns. He had tried to conceal the existence of the shed, the car, and the guns from investigators, law enforcement officials said. The car, which he had bought under a different name, was a white Ford Crown Victoria that resembled an unmarked police car, and was similar to the description of the car that witnesses said they saw fleeing the scene after the shooting of Hasse in January. The firearms discovered included handguns and assault rifles. The weapon used to kill the prosecutor in January was believed to be a revolver, while the gun used in the shootings of the district attorney and his wife was an assault rifle.
The shed itself had been rented by an associate of Williams’, at Williams’ request, law enforcement officials said. That person was not his wife, they said, but another person close to him. It was unclear whether that person would face any charges.
Rico says it's Texas; they'll all go to jail...
No comments:
Post a Comment