Jury
finds Williams guilty of murder charge
by
Ivan Foley
Landmark editor
After deliberating for about 2½ hours, a Platte
County jury on Thursday came back with a guilty verdict
in the murder case against Jimmy Williams, 48.
He was convicted of first degree murder and armed criminal
action in the death of his former son-in-law, Thadd Mize,
28, in December.
"The trial went basically as expected," said
Tammy Glick, interim prosecutor for Platte County.
She said the jury made a recommendation that Williams
be sentenced to life in prison without parole on each
count. Judge Abe Shafer is expected to officially sentence
Williams, who remains in Platte County Jail in lieu of
a $2 million cash bond, on Nov. 14.
"I'm very satisfied with the verdict," Glick
said.
Prosecutors claimed that Mize was shot so his ex-wife,
Chrysta Mize, the daughter of Williams, could collect
on a $155,000 fraudulent life insurance policy.
Thadd Mize's former wife and mother-in-law also face
charges related to the killing. They have pleaded not
guilty and are awaiting trial in Platte County Circuit
Court.
Mize's girlfriend, Jennifer Monroe, recalled how Mize,
talking to her on is cell phone on Dec. 12, described
his former in-laws pulling alongside his car in a van
and shooting him. Prosecutors also played a 911 tape recording
of Monroe rushing to the scene and trying to help Mize.
During her closing argument, Glick told jurors about
a life insurance policy that Thadd Mize claimed was forged
and fraudulent shortly before he was killed. The prosecutor
said that during Mize's 10-year marriage to Chrysta Mize
the victim was intimidated by Williams and feared him.
|
