Courtroom Conference
Eric Williams charged with capital murder of Kaufman County district attorneys
As expected, former judge Eric Williams was charged with capital murder on Thursday in the deaths of Mike McLelland, Cynthia McLelland and Mark Hasse. The announcement was made at a press conference in a Kaufman County courtroom with 25 representatives from the Kaufman sheriff's office, the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Williams' charge was the inevitable follow-up to the April 17 arrest of his wife, Kim, who confessed to her role in the murders and reported that her husband shot and killed all three victims.
Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes acknowledged the collaborative efforts that had taken place between his department, Dallas law enforcement and the FBI. "This is a textbook case of cooperation," he said.
Byrnes said that Williams had "always been on the radar."
"We talked to him after Mark's death and also the night of the McLellands' [deaths]," Byrnes said. "But we had a broad spectrum on this. We didn't want to get tunnel vision."
He said they'd been collecting evidence since Hasse's murder on January 31, but the evidence found in a storage unit belonging to the Williams was "the watershed."
He also said that death penalty is a "viable option" because it's a capital case. "But [Williams] is not talking to us and is presumed innocent until proven guilty," he said.
