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Julius Williams family: 'We just didn’t get justice’
YOUNGSTOWN
Julius Williams was gunned down nearly four years ago by his wife during a domestic dispute, and his family feels justice has not been served in the myriad court proceedings that sent the wife to prison for eight years.
Monique Williams, 43, went to trial in 2010 and was found guilty in the April 21, 2008, slaying of her 44-year-old husband. She was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.
Her case was returned to Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, however, after the 7th District Court of Appeals ordered a new trial based on its findings of legal and procedural error in Williams’ January 2010 jury trial.
Monique Williams, at her re- sentencing March 14, apologized to her family and her in-laws.
Reice Williams, Julius’ sister, said the family was prepared to go through another trial after the appellate court ruling, but she was shocked when Monique Williams was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary man- slaughter.
Prosecutors asked the court for the maximum sentence of 10 years for the manslaughter charges, plus the three years for the gun charge. Judge Durkin, however, sentenced her to five years in prison and an additional three years for using a gun in the crime.
Reice Williams said the initial trial was painful for her family. The thought of a second trial, she said, was excruciating, but the sentence handed down to her sister-in-law was just insulting.
“We are thinking it’s time to go to trial, and they [prosecutor’s office] tell us she was given a plea bargain,” she said. “I feel like we didn’t get justice. From the time my brother was killed, we just didn’t get justice. ... I feel like the prosecutor just didn’t do his job.”
Nicholas Brevetta, an assistant county prosecutor handling the case, said the plea agreement became necessary after the appellate court ruling.
He said the appellate court ruled the jury should be told that Monique Williams did not have an obligation to flee because she was at home and could in fact act to defend herself.
“That made the murder case a lot weaker because she could say she feared for her life and therefore acted with deadly force,” Brevetta said. “If the circumstances had not changed with the instructions to be given to the jury, there is no way we would have offered this deal.”
Still, Barbara Simmons, another sister of Julius Williams’, said the family was ready to endure hearing the details of the killing during another trial if it would have meant the possibility of more time in prison for her sister-in-law.
“We didn’t want a plea bargain. She killed our brother,” Simmon said. “She shot him in the back twice, and now she is only going to do four or five years” in prison, she said.
Reice Williams said the plea would not have been so bad if the sentence could have been the 13 years suggested by prosecutors.
“I don’t think it is right for her to walk around here after serving only four to five years,” she said. “Ten years would have been good for us. We would have been happy with that, but not four to five years. I have seen people get more time for drugs than that,” she said.
Maggie Williams, Julius’ mother, said she is heartbroken by the entire situation, but she is leaving it all in God’s hands.