On the same day a grand jury handed down indictments accusing former Kaufman County Justice of the Peace Eric Williams and his wife, Kim, of capital murder, she filed for divorce. According to a petition filed Thursday in district court, Kim Lene Williams is seeking to end her 17-year marriage, which has "become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities ..."
That she'll soon be tried along with her husband for the alleged murder of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife, Cynthia, and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse may have something to do with the marital strife. They face the death penalty, or at least life in prison. It's possible that Kim Williams, who implicated her husband, may become the prosecution's star witness.
In May 2011, surveillance cameras caught her husband rummaging through the information technology office in the county sub-courthouse, then strolling off with three new computers. Investigators recovered two of them, but never found the other. Williams was charged and eventually convicted of burglary. He lost his license to practice law, and he lost his seat as justice of the peace. Williams claimed the prosecution was politically motivated because he'd publicly questioned McLelland's background and Republican bonafides during his first run for district attorney. Investigators say that grudge festered until it took shape as a plan to seek revenge.
On January 31, Hasse was gunned down as he walked to work, a block from the courthouse. On March 30, at around dawn, Cynthia McLelland was shot to death near the front door of their Forney home. Mike McLelland, still in his pajamas, died a few steps away.
Investigators later located Williams' storage unit in Seagoville, which was filled with weapons and ammunition that matched the type found at the murder scenes. They also found a vehicle there that looked similar to one caught on a surveillance camera leaving the McLelland's neighborhood around the time of the murders. The silver sedan used as a getaway vehicle in the Hasse killing was recovered after being towed from the storage complex. And, finally, Kim Williams confessed to investigators that her husband was behind it all, and that she was with him the whole time.
Now she wants a divorce. Not that it much matters now, but it's worth noting simply for the curious timing that Eric Williams is also being sued for $50,000 by Lucienne Johnson, his mother-in-law. According to the suit, she loaned him $30,000 on January 25, less than a week before Hasse's murder. And $20,000 on April 26, more than a week after he was charged with the murders. He has apparently "refused to pay the amounts due."
