Emotionless Williams found guilty in Kaufman killings

ROCKWALL – In the end, it took a 12-member jury just one hour and 40 minutes to unanimously convict former Justice of the Peace Eric Williams of capital murder in the deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia.

Family members wept and cried as they heard the verdict.

The McLellands were shot to death in their home over the Easter weekend in 2013. About two months earlier, prosecutor Mark Hasse was gunned down as he walked to the courthouse.

Prosecutors contend that Williams killed Mike McLelland and Hasse in revenge for having prosecuted him for the theft of county computer monitors in March 2012, calling it an unprecedented attack on the criminal justice system.

"Mike McLelland died because he stood up in a court of law in front of a judge, in front of a jury, and sought justice," said lead special prosecutor Bill Wirskye said, pointing at Williams. "I'm standing up seeking justice knowing there is murderer in the courtroom."

The punishment phase of the trial begins Monday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Williams was tried on the indictment for the killing of Cynthia McLelland. It included two charges that justified seeking the death penalty. One was that Williams killed her while committing a felony, burglary. The other was that he killed her along with another person, her husband.

Williams' wife, Kim, is also faces three charges of capital murder. She has not yet been tried.

In closing statements, prosecutors described Eric Williams as a ruthless killing machine who methodically plotted every detail of the killings.

Prosecutors walked the jury through the evidence: The secret storage unit that Williams had a friend rent for him in late 2012. The buying of a white police Crown Victoria under an assumed name. The requests to another friend, asking about the penetrating capabilities of certain types of ammunition and firearms.

"It's a circumstantial evidence case," said special prosecutor Toby Shook. "It's like a net. You piece it all together and it tracks to Eric Williams."

Shook reminded jurors that Williams also asked the friend if he could make the "upper" portion of an AR-15 disappear. The friend declined the request.

Eric Williams was found guilty of murder in the Kaufman County prosecutor killings. News 8's Tanya Eiserer has more.

But prosecutors say there is a significance to the request.

"That contains all the forensics where the two marks would be left when you fire a weapon -- the firing pin that leaves a mark on the casing," Shook told jurors as he held one of those two "lowers." "It's essential for Eric Williams that he gets that upper away from him so that it can't be traced to him."

Two "lowers" were found in the storage unit without the corresponding uppers. One of the "lowers" had a sheriff's emblem attached to it.

Shook then recounted to jurors what they believe happened on the morning of the murders.

Surveillance videos shows Williams arriving at the storage shed in his truck at 6:06 a.m. He's there for 12 minutes.

"I submit to you that he's getting his sheriff's badge on, his ballistics vest, and he's getting his weapon ready to go," Shook told jurors.

He drives away in the Crown Victoria at 6:18 a.m.

"The McLellands, at this time, are asleep in their home," Shook said. "They have about 20 minutes left to live, sleeping in their house, where they're safe."

Once at the home, Shook told jurors that Williams was an "efficient and effective, ruthless killing machine." He said Williams first shot Cynthia McLelland, "a 65-year-old woman standing there in her nightshirt, defenseless."

He told jurors that Williams then turned the gun on Mike McLelland, repeatedly shooting him until he fell to the ground.

"Finally, he stands over him and he shoots round after round after round as he lays helplessly on the ground," Shook said, showing jurors pictures of the slain district attorney.

An autopsy showed Cynthia McLelland was shot in the head, with the bullet coming out her chin. The trajectory of the bullet indicated she was on the ground at the time. Shook said Williams to make sure this "65-year-old woman who just quilts and does no one any harm is going to dead before he leave that house."

Mike McLelland suffered 16 gunshot wounds. His wife had eight.

"He is pulling the trigger over and over, repeatedly in some psychic effort in his twisted brain to somehow to quench the unquenchable rage that he possesses in his soul. It is overkill," Wirskye said.

Williams returned to the storage facility at 7:07 a.m. –- less than an hour after he left. He left in his truck by 7:24 a.m. The storage unit was not accessed again until law officers searched it, seizing dozens of weapons.

Inside that storage unit, Shook said authorities found the "smoking gun:" an unfired .223 cartridge that had cycled through the same weapon that killed the McLellands.

Shook said Williams' other big mistake was sending an anonymous, taunting email to Crime Stoppers the following night after the murders. Tipsters are given a unique number and password.

In bold letters, it read, "Do we have full attention now? Only a response from [County] Judge Bruce Wood would be answered. You have 48 hours. Victim's information: McLelland."

The following night, the person sent an email demanding that one of four Kaufman County judge resign, citing stress or family concerns. The sender instructed authorities not to alert the media to the arrangement. The sender threatened more attacks if the demands were not met.

"He's having fun here, folks," Shook told jurors.

Shook called the emails tantamount to a confession. That unique number was found written on a scrap of paper next to Williams' computer.

"Leaving that tip number has to go down as about the dumbest mistake in the history of homicide," Shook said. "It was just stupid, but seals his fate because, that's how we catch criminals. They make mistakes."

In his closing statement, lead defense attorney Matthew Seymour said prosecutors had not met their burden of proof.

"Eric Williams did not commit these murders, and how do you know that there's not one single piece of biometric evidence that ties Eric to the McLelland home. Not one fingerprint, not one piece of DNA, not one hair, nothing," he said. "What the state wants you to believe is that a mountain of circumstantial evidence can trump direct evidence -- actual proof."

Defense attorneys did not put any of their own witnesses on the stand. Seymour said they did not have to, since it the state's burden to prove their case.

He questioned the significance of some pieces of evidence, such as the Williams' fingerprints being found on the Crown Victoria, saying there was no way to know when they were left. He suggested it could have been Kim Williams who sent those emails to Crime Stoppers or did those computer searches on the McLellands.

Seymour called the ballistics testing flawed, saying there was no way to determine an individual examiner's error rate. He said the examiner had cherry picked, choosing to match the unspent shell casing found in the storage unit that appeared to match the best.

"There is not a single witness who came in saying [Williams] said, 'I'm going to get the McLellands,'" Seymour said.

Over the past four days, Williams sat in court looking very much like the one-time lawyer that he was. Wirskye told jurors not to be taken in by that "veneer of respectability."

He showed no emotion when the verdict was read.

"I'm here to tell you the outward appearances belie what lies inside of this man, which is a seething, murderous rage. A seething murderous revenge," Wirskye said. "Do not be fooled by the normalcy of this man. Understand what lies inside. It's not a fantasy. Sometimes people that look like that do horrible things."

Jurors clearly agreed with that assessment.

When the punishment phase begins Monday, jurors are expected to hear for the first time about the Hasse killing. It's also expected that the defense will put its own witnesses on the stand in an effort to keep Williams off death row.