A former North Texas magistrate judge who was sentenced to death for killing a district attorney's wife and killing three people in 2014 in a revenge plot is seeking a new death penalty trial, according to reports.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Eric Williams' lawyers argued in a 169-page filing that a lack of time to review the evidence and prepare for trial led to the conviction. Ta.
He also claimed he was tried before a biased judge, adding that holding the trial in Rockwall County had no effect on providing a fair trial.
Williams was found guilty of secret murder in the Dec. 4, 2014, murders of Cynthia McClelland and Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McClelland, who were killed along with her husband in their east Dallas home. Williams was also convicted of murdering prosecutor Mark Hasse.
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Eric Williams enters the courtroom before closing arguments at the Rockwall County Courthouse in Rockwall, Texas. (AP Photo/Dallas Morning News, Vernon Bryant, Poole)
Mr. Williams had lost his job and his law license after Mr. McClelland and Mr. Hasse indicted him for theft and robbery.
Authorities said Williams was upset because prosecutors were charging him with stealing county-owned computer equipment.
Prosecutors argued that the conviction pushed Williams over the edge, and during the trial he paid a friend to rent a warehouse that contained more than 30 guns, police tactical equipment and escape equipment. He provided evidence that he had kept the car.
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Eric Williams bows his head as the death sentence is read and the guilty verdict is read at the Rockwall County Courthouse on Thursday, December 4, 2014 in Rockwall, Texas. A jury convicted Williams, a former public servant, of the 2013 murder. Cynthia McClelland and her husband Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McClelland. Mr. Williams now faces a possible death sentence. (AP Photo/Dallas Morning News, Pool)
In January 2013, Williams, wearing a mask and tactical gear, shot Hasse in broad daylight outside a courthouse building.
Prosecutors said a “masked assassin” whom they identified as Williams approached Hasse on his way to work. The two confronted each other, and Mr. Hasse yelled that he was sorry, before being shot several times.
Two months later, Williams broke into the McClellans' rural home and shot the prosecutor and his wife more than a dozen times.
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In this Dec. 16, 2014 file photo, Kim Williams, Eric Williams' estranged wife, testifies during the penalty phase of Eric Williams' death penalty trial at the Rockwall County Courthouse in Rockwall, Texas. There is. Williams, who pleaded guilty to murder on Tuesday, December 30, 2014, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after previously testifying that she helped her husband shoot and kill the district attorney, his wife, and his chief of staff in a revenge plot. was sentenced. Williams appeared in court two weeks after her husband, Eric Williams, was sentenced to death for one of three murders. (AP Photo/Dallas Morning News, Vernon Bryant, Pool, File)
Williams' wife, Kim, was charged with assisting in Williams' murder and pleaded guilty. During Williams' trial, Kim testified that she drove the getaway car when Hasse was killed and that she helped Williams dispose of the weapon during the McClellands' murders.
Kim also testified that Williams had a hit list of names, including District Judge Glenn Ashworth and Kaufman County District Attorney Arlie Norville Wiley.
She was later sentenced to 40 years in prison for her role.
Williams has filed several appeals to have his death sentence overturned, including one in which he claimed he suffered a fractured brain.
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The magazine reported that Williams said in a separate appeal that he wanted revenge against “a few politicians who ruined my life.”
The newspaper reports that a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas is scheduled to hold a hearing on Williams' latest claims this Tuesday.
