KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Visiting Judge Webb Biard denied Eric Williams a new trial earlier today in the Kaufman County Courthouse after hearing three days of testimony.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Visiting Judge Webb Biard denied Eric Williams a new trial earlier today in the Kaufman County Courthouse after hearing three days of testimony.
Williams sought a new trial on the grounds his brain was “broken” caused by diabetic episodes and also on the grounds then-visiting Judge Mike Snipes was biased during Williams’ original trial in which he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on December 17, 2014.
The defense presented scans of Williams’ brain which were taken at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, and two CT scans which were conducted prior to Williams’ capital murder trial.
Special Prosecutor Bill Wirskye argued Williams’ brain wasn’t broken. “Something’s wrong but its with his mind and his heart. His mind and his heart are evil,” he said.
Immediately following the denial, Williams’ defense team filed a motion to reveal the “findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding [Williams’] motion for new trial.”
Williams, who requested to not be in the courtroom for the hearings, was ordered back to Death Row after a short stint at the Kaufman County Jail during the proceedings.
Williams was convicted of capital murder in the death of Cynthia McLelland, the wife of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, who were both gunned down in their Forney, Texas, area home over Easter weekend 2013. Mark Hasse, McLellands' top assistant, was gunned down as he walked from the Kaufman County Courthouse annex parking lot to the courthouse on January 31, 2013, for which Williams was also indicted.
Williams' wife, Kim, pled guilty to the murder of Hasse following Eric's conviction and death sentence. She received 40 years in prison.
The denial by Judge Biard is only a speed bump to the years of appeals Williams is expected to exhaust before his eventual execution.
