Judge George Gallagher has raised the bond for accused murderer Michele Williams to $850,000. The more than $300,000 increase came at the request of the Tarrant County district attorney, who felt the previous bond was inadequate in light of the possibility that Williams would flee the country if released.
At a May 28 hearing, a married couple who took fitness classes from Williams offered to help post her bond because they believe she is innocent. Michele Williams is accused of murdering her husband, Greg; cleaning the crime scene with bleach; and staging a home invasion. She is awaiting trial in September.
Assistant district attorney Jack Strickland presented evidence that while out on bond in the past, Williams used false identities, worked at a strip club, removed her GPS ankle monitor and secretly traveled to South Texas. Strickland also argued that Williams faked her entire pregnancy with twins, including a supposed jailhouse miscarriage, for which no official records exist.
Williams had previously been held on a $520,000 bond for first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. She has been in police custody since January 30, when it was revealed that she was not pregnant with twins as she'd alleged to authorities in a successful attempt to delay her sentencing in a 2013 plea deal.
The case has taken a number of bizarre twists and turns since CultureMap first investigated Williams. In 2011, she told police that an intruder killed her husband before changing her story to say Greg committed suicide and she staged the crime scene to hide the truth from their young daughter, who was asleep in the next room when her father was killed.
In 2014, Williams withdrew her guilty plea on charges of deadly conduct and tampering with evidence in a dramatic bout of testimony at her February sentencing hearing. She had been scheduled to begin an 18-year prison sentence. Although Williams once accepted that she had a role in her husband's death, she now says she was pressured to take the deal and is innocent.
Michele and Greg Williams were married in 2008.
