Nebraska judge allows murder case to proceed against suspect in killing of small-town priest
BLAIR, Neb.– A Nebraska judge agreed Wednesday that the fact that the suspect was found lying on a seriously injured priest, covered in bloodstains, last month in the home where the priest lived next to his small-town church suggests that Kierre Williams was responsible for the murder. kill.
Washington County Judge Edward Matney ruled there was probable cause to continue the murder case against 43-year-old Williams. He will be held without bond until he is due back in court early next month to enter a plea to the murder and weapons charges he faces. His lawyer does not want to discuss the case.
Prosecutors have said there does not appear to be any connection between Williams and the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell, who was fatally stabbed Dec. 10 in the parsonage of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in tiny Fort Calhoun. The one-story home was still wrapped in crime scene tape Wednesday, nearly a month after the attack.
The priest's death came just four months after another apparently random killing spree in a town of 1,100 residents eight miles north of Omaha, shaking residents' confidence in their safety.
Washington County Deputy Chief Attorney Erik Petersen on Wednesday summarized key evidence against Williams that he laid out largely in court documents last month. Sheriff's Deputy Brady Tucker described what he saw after rushing to the house minutes after the priest reported an intruder that Sunday morning, and a detective told what the initial investigation revealed.
Tucker testified that he found Williams lying crosswise over Gutgsell, whose face was covered in blood. Williams complied with orders to show his hands and get rid of the priest, and he was quickly taken into custody.
Although Williams did not have a weapon when he was arrested, investigators later found a broken knife with a serrated blade in the middle of a bloodstain on the floor of Gutgsell's bedroom.
When Williams was interviewed during jail hours after the 65-year-old priest died in an Omaha hospital, he bore evidence of the attack. An autopsy confirmed he died of multiple stab wounds.
“He was wearing ski pants, a jacket, tennis shoes and some type of winter gear,” Detective Greg Corns said. “There was blood on the outside of the pants, shoes and shirt. There is blood on the bottom of his shoes and there is also some blood splatter on the top of the shoes.”
Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty in the case.
Williams has an extensive criminal history with several felony convictions in other states. But at the time of the murder, he was working at a meatpacking plant in Sioux City, Iowa. It is not clear what brought him to Fort Calhoun.