‘She didn’t have to kill him’

Woman convicted of killing husband

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A sister of the slaying victim and an assistant county prosecutor said a jury clearly made the right decision when it convicted Monique Williams of murdering her husband, Julius, with a firearm specification.

“He wasn’t presenting a threat to her. He was so drunk — he’s lying on the floor when she shoots him,” said Jennifer McLaughlin-Smith, who prosecuted the case.

“She had the opportunity to get out of the situation, to leave the house, and she chose not to do that. Instead, she chose to shoot him, and that’s exactly what she did, and that’s murder,” the prosecutor added.

“She could have walked away from my brother. She didn’t have to do that. She didn’t have to kill him and take him away from all of us. ... We haven’t been the same since then,” said Reese Williams of Youngstown, the victim’s younger sister. “She shot him in his back, so she got what she deserved,” Reese Williams said of the verdict.

The jury of seven men and five women rendered its guilty verdict on the murder charge Friday afternoon after three hours and 20 minutes of deliberations at the end of a four-day trial.

Julius Williams, 44, died in St. Elizabeth Health Center after being shot in the couple’s Norwood Avenue residence on the city’s North Side on April 21, 2008.

The prosecution said Monique Williams shot her husband at least twice in the back with a .38-caliber revolver while he was too drunk to walk or stand up.

But defense lawyer Thomas E. Zena said Julius Williams choked and tried to kill his wife on the night he was shot, and that Monique Williams shot her husband during a struggle to save her own life. Zena said an appeal will be filed.

“They [the jurors] decided the bullets were in the back. I guess that was too much to overcome,” Zena observed after the verdict. “We tried to show how that could still be self-defense in this case, but apparently they didn’t think so,” Zena said.

“He was crawling toward her to try to grab her again. He was lower than her, and he was coming toward her, and she fired downward,” Zena said. The victim was “coming toward her with his arms to try to pull her down again after having tried to strangle her on the couch,” he added.

The 40-year-old defendant faces a mandatory 18 years to life in prison when she is sentenced at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday by Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who presided over the trial.

In its deliberations, the jury rejected a lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter with a gun specification, which would have meant that the defendant killed in a sudden fit of rage brought on by provocation from the victim. Had the jury chosen it, that option would have resulted in a six- to 13-year prison term.

Jurors also rejected the defendant’s self-defense claim, which would have resulted in an acquittal if the jury had believed it.

“The prosecution proved its case extremely well,” said William Whitehouse of Youngstown, jury foreman. “The defense really didn’t convince us at all.”

“She had every chance to get out and run away from him. She didn’t have to shoot him. The doors were not barred or locked,” he said, adding that Monique Williams deliberately shot her husband twice, with 12 pounds of pressure required to pull the trigger.