In 2013, two prosecutors and a prosecutor's wife were murdered in
Kaufman County, Texas
Kaufman County is a county in the northeast area of the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 145,310. Its county seat is Kaufman. Both the county, established in 1848, and the city were named for David S. Kaufman, a ...
. The case gained national attention in the United States due to speculation that the
Aryan Brotherhood
The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand or the AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate which is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern P ...
prison gang was responsible, but this was later found to be untrue. Eric Lyle Williams (born April 7, 1967), a former lawyer and justice of the peace whose theft case was prosecuted by two of the victims, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death for the three murders. His wife, Kimberly Irene "Kim" Williams, was tried separately, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Timeline
Hasse murder
On January 31, 2013
Mark Hassewas shot and killed while walking in the 100 block of East Grove Street in
Kaufman, Texas
Kaufman is a city in and the county seat of Kaufman County, Texas, United States. Its population was 6,797 at the 2020 census.
History
Kaufman was founded as "Kings Fort", named after Dr. William P. King, who established the fort in 1840 after pu ...
. Hasse was the chief assistant district attorney for the Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney's Office.
He was walking from his car to the courthouse when a gunman shot him repeatedly, and then fled the area in a waiting car. Hasse, 57, had been an attorney for many years, and had previously served as an assistant district attorney in
Dallas County Dallas County may refer to:
Places in the USA:
* Dallas County, Alabama, founded in 1818, the first county in the United States by that name
* Dallas County, Arkansas
* Dallas County, Iowa
* Dallas County, Missouri
* Dallas County, Texas, the nin ...
under District Attorney
Henry Wade
Henry Menasco Wade (November 11, 1914 – March 1, 2001) was an American lawyer who served as district attorney of Dallas County from 1951 to 1987. He participated in two notable U.S. court cases of the 20th century: the prosecution of Jack Ru ...
. He had worked for Kaufman County since 2010 as a prosecutor, and was also a licensed police officer commissioned with the district attorney's office.
A large manhunt was conducted by law-enforcement agencies, including the Kaufman Police Department, the Kaufman County Sheriff, several Kaufman County Constable's Offices, the
Texas Department of Public Safety
The Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas, commonly known as the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), is a department of the state government of Texas. The DPS is responsible for statewide law enforcement and driver license admini ...
, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
, the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...
.
During the course of the investigation, a number of leads were followed, and news of the investigation captured headlines across the nation. Most hypotheses involved allegations that the Aryan Brotherhood, a prison gang, had been responsible for the murder. They were later found to be untrue. The speculation was made by other Kaufman defense attorneys acquainted with Hasse, who knew that Hasse “dealt with cases involving
methamphetamine in the county, gangs, and
white supremacist groups.”
McLelland murders
On March 30, 2013, the bodies of Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney Michael McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia (Woodward) McLelland, 65, were found in their home located in
Talty in rural Kaufman County.
The murdered couple was discovered by Dallas police officer, C.J. Tomlinson, and his step-father, Skeet Phillips, who were both family friends of the McLellands. The duo entered the home to check on the couple after a family member was unable to contact them;
Tomlinson's mother had called him after her phone calls to both McLellands, trying to arrange a time to drop off vegetables for a dinner Mrs. McLelland was preparing for the Phillips family.
[NBC News]
"Vendetta,"
''Dateline'', February 27, 2015. Tomlinson found the front door closed but unlocked — unusual in a situation in which McLelland had, like his colleagues, been particularly alert to personal safety since the Hasse murder — and noticed shell casings on the entryway floor as he carefully opened the door.
Both victims had been shot and killed in what was described as a
home invasion-type assault on their property.
McLelland had been elected to his office in 2010 and was widely viewed as an excellent replacement for the previous district attorney, who had been arrested for driving under the influence while in office. Mike McLelland was an officer in the
U.S. Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces.
Since July 20 ...
for 23 years, and worked as a
clinical psychologist before pursuing a legal career.
Cynthia McLelland worked as a clinical psychologist for many years before becoming a
psychiatric nurse
Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is the appointed position of a nurse that specialises in mental health, and cares for people of all ages experiencing mental illnesses or distress. These include: neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophr ...
at Terrell State Hospital.
Following the McLelland murders, numerous elected officials in the county were placed under protection by law-enforcement officers at home and at work. Security was visibly increased at the Kaufman County Courthouse.
Arrests and trial
On April 18, 2013, Eric Lyle Williams and his wife, Kim, were arrested for all three murders. Eric Williams, a former attorney and
justice of the peace for Kaufman County, had been convicted of burglary and theft while in office, and was the only person prosecuted by both McLelland and Hasse. Williams was out of jail on
probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration.
In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...
at the time of the murders.
The trial was moved out of Kaufman County, as Williams' defense lawyers cited media coverage and its interference with a fair trial as reasons for
change of venue
A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread public ...
. Kim Williams was held at the Kaufman County Law Enforcement Center in lieu of a $10 million bond. Williams' license to practice law, which had been suspended on October 10, 2012, was permanently revoked when he was disbarred on February 3, 2014.
Eric Williams was found guilty of
capital murder at his trial in
Rockwall County on December 4, 2014. He was sentenced on December 17, 2014 to die by lethal injection. , Eric Lyle Williams is incarcerated in the
Polunsky Unit
Allan B. Polunsky Unit (TL, formerly the Terrell Unit) is a prison in West Livingston, unincorporated Polk County, Texas, United States, located approximately southwest of Livingston along Farm to Market Road 350. - Note the 2010 U.S. Cen ...
of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) and is awaiting execution. The
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
denied an appeal from Williams on May 14, 2018. Williams filed a new appeal in August 2019.
Kim Williams, after testifying against Eric in his trial, pled guilty to her role in planning and performing the murders, on December 30, 2014, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Media coverage
In March 2018,
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
published a book on the cases written by veteran journalist
Kathryn Casey
Kathryn Casey is an American writer of mystery novels and non-fiction books. She is best known for writing ''She Wanted It All'', which recounts the case of Celeste Beard, who married an Austin multimillionaire only to convince her lesbian lover ...
, ''
In Plain Sight: The Kaufman County Prosecutor Murders''. The first journalist to go inside the prisons to interview Kim and Eric Williams, Casey conducted extensive interviews over a two-year period with both the convicted killers. During those sessions, Eric Williams denied any involvement in the killings and professed his innocence. In contrast, Kim Williams described in detail the events leading up to the murders and recounted the days of the killings. She claimed to regret her actions and acknowledged that she could have stopped her husband by contacting authorities before any of the victims died. Kim Williams filed for divorce while in prison, and it became final in January 2018.
On March 6, 2022, the case was profiled on ''
Forensic Files II
''Forensic Files II'' is a revival continuation of the long-running American documentary true crime series ''Forensic Files'', which originally aired from 1996 to 2011 on various networks. Premiering on February 23, 2020, ''Forensic Files IIs f ...
'' in an episode titled "Marked for Murder."
References
{{reflist
External links
* Texas Courts: