The man accused of last year's Kaufman County prosecutor murders lost a bid Friday to exclude key ballistics evidence from his murder trial.
Former Kaufman County Justice of the Peace Eric Williams and his wife, Kim Williams, are charged with capital murder for the shootings of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, McLelland’s wife, Cynthia McLelland, and McLelland’s top assistant, Mark Hasse.
A jury is scheduled to begin hearing the evidence against Eric Williams Dec. 1. A trial date for Kim Williams has not been set.
At a pre-trial hearing Friday, Eric Williams' lead defense attorney, Matthew Seymour, argued ballistics is faulty and the jury should not be allowed to hear the bullet fragment evidence in this case.
“There just isn’t a statistical basis for this science at all. It is all based on subjective observations of one person and one person only. The analyst has testified to this fact,” Seymour said.
Texas Department of Public Safety Ballistics Examiner James Jeffress told the court that his work is very reliable, but he admitted ballistics is subject to individual interpretation.
“It is an opinion-based assessment and two different examiners can and do occasionally come to different conclusions,” Jeffress said.
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Special Prosecutor Bill Wirskye argued the ballistics evidence collected and analyzed in Eric Williams’ case is reliable and should be presented to the jury.
“You heard testimony that these techniques were applied correctly in this case. We ask you to admit this evidence before this jury,” Wirskye said.
State District Judge Mike Snipes agreed with Jeffress that the ballistics evidence should be included in the trial.
“Ballistics evidence similar to this is admitted in courts throughout our great country all the time,” Snipes said.
The testimony is important to the state’s case against Eric Williams.
Investigators never found the gun that killed the McLellands, but Wirskye said in court that 16 bullet fragments from the McLellands’ home were linked through Jeffress’ analysis to a fragment found at Williams’ Seagoville storage unit, showing all of them were fired from the same gun.
Kim Williams is believed to be cooperating with prosecutors and is expected to testify against her husband, although Wirskye has denied the state has any deal in place with her.
Last week, NBC 5 exclusively reported on evidence Eric Williams’ brother-in-law said he found in the Seagoville storage unit and the Williams’ Kaufman home after authorities had searched those locations.
He said the fact the items were overlooked suggests the investigation is flawed.
Included was a hand-written note with the title “Kim’s Kick Ass List” naming several Kaufman officials against whom the author of the note had complaints.
The note suggests Kim Williams may not have been the unwilling accomplice she was thought to be.
Wirskye said he visited the brother-in-law after the story aired on NBC 5 and took the potential evidence items the brother-in-law had, including that note.
Evidence entered previously for the trial allegedly showed Eric Williams also had a list of other public officials he wanted to harm.
One of them, current Kaufman County District Attorney Erleigh Wiley, attended Eric Williams’ hearing Friday.
Wiley was a Kaufman County court at law judge at the time of the murders. She was later appointed to replace McLelland by Gov. Rick Perry.
She did not participate in the hearing and watched silently from the court room visitor area.
Snipes scheduled another pretrial hearing Nov. 20 for any other pre-trial motions.
