Accidental Cell Call Not Only Put Suspect at Scene of Murder But Recorded Crime, Prosecutor Says
Somehow, as Ronald Earl Williams was stabbing his wife to death in 2007, he accidentally hit the send key on his cellphone, a prosecutor says.
And the call he allegedly made was to his wife, the St. Petersburg Times reports. So Williams’ threat to kill her, along with Mariama Williams’ screams as he began stabbing her 27 times with a kitchen knife, was recorded in her phone’s voice mail box, assistant state attorney Walter Manning told a Pinellas County jury today.
Public Defender Kandice Friesen admits that her client killed Mariama, but says Williams snapped and did so without premeditation after she admitted that she had cheated on him. If the jury believes this, her client should not be convicted of first-degree murder, which is a capital offense in Florida. He could, however, be convicted of second-degree murder, for which the maximum sentence is life in prison.
An earlier St. Petersburg Times article says St. Petersburg authorities initially charged Williams with second-degree murder but upgraded the case after the victim’s sister found the cellphone message.
Also factoring into the decision by authorities was the number of stab wounds and a reported admission by Williams that he had stabbed his wife, after an argument, in the heat of the moment.
