The Texas 'Black Widow' Case: Man Shot Dead in Bed by Own Wife
Inside the murder of businessman Gregg Williams and the search for his killer.
— -- intro:It was a crime that drew national attention. A Keller, Texas, man was found dead, and the only person who knew what happened was his wife.
At his home in an upscale gated community, Gregg Williams was shot in the head and later died. Police took their only witness, Williams’ wife Michele Williams, to headquarters, where she told them an intruder in black clothing hit her and shot her husband.
But soon after arriving at the home, police became suspicious.
Confronted by police, Michele Williams changed her story. She then said her husband committed suicide.
Police released Michele Williams, but she was later arrested and then indicted by a grand jury in the murder of her husband. Michele Williams accepted a plea deal in which she pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and deadly conduct in her husband’s shooting.
However, before she could be sentenced, she granted an interview to a national TV crime show. After telling the show she was an innocent woman, her plea deal was revoked, and she went to trial for her husband’s murder.
Click through for a closer look at the murder of Gregg Williams and to find out who was the actual killer.
quicklist:1title:Gregg and Michele Williams text:Successful IT entrepreneur Gregg Williams, 40, lived in Keller with his wife Michele Williams, 42, and their 4-year-old daughter.
Gregg Williams was into martial arts and bodybuilding and ran a successful computer-tech business. He and Michele Williams each had two marriages behind them.
The two were renting the big home with a pool in the yard and matching luxury cars in the garage.
Lee O’Brien, Michele Williams’ son from a previous marriage, said Gregg Williams was a good catch for his mother. O’Brien said he worked for Gregg Williams until he was fired.
“She found the golden goose: money. He's got the money. He's got the party lifestyle. He's accomplished, and she's head over heels,” O’Brien told “20/20.”
Michele Williams was spending her husband’s money as fast as he could make it, O’Brien said. But there was a dark side to Gregg Williams, according to O’Brien.
O’Brien said he once got into a fight with Gregg Williams and that dangerous-looking friends would show up to parties thrown by his mother and Gregg Williams.
“You've got gangsters that you can see the outline of a pistol in the back of their pants at these parties,” O’Brien said. media:26194619
quicklist:2title:Oct. 13, 2011text:On Oct. 13, 2011, about a month after their third wedding anniversary, Gregg Williams was shot in the head while he was in bed. Hysterical, his wife called 911.
When police arrived, Michele Williams told them a man broke into the home, hit her and shot her husband.
Gregg Williams died from the single gunshot wound to his head. They were supposed to close on a new house the next day.media:26192147caption:use
quicklist:3title:Michele Williams Is Questionedtext:As the only witness to her husband’s death, Michele Williams was brought to the police station for questioning.
She told police Det. John McGrew that a mysterious intruder dressed in all black and speaking with a thick, country accent broke into her home. She said the intruder hit her so hard she blacked out for several seconds.
Williams said the intruder shot her husband once in the head and then ran out the back door. She had a bruise on her cheek from the supposed attack, but police said the evidence at the crime scene wasn’t adding up to Williams’ story.
“That scene was basically mostly lies, I believe,” McGrew told ABC News’ “20/20.”media:26245609caption:use
quicklist:4title:A Closer Look at the Crime Scene text:Inside the Williams’ home, police investigators found a gun belonging to Gregg Williams, a single shell casing, and a long wrench all left by the back door.
“That’s so nobody can actually overlook those, so that they're obvious,” Deputy Chief District Attorney Jack Strickland told “20/20.”
Police also took a closer look at the door that Michele Williams said the alleged intruder got in through. They determine that whoever jimmied the door open was doing it for show. The pry marks on the door could only have been made when the door was already open.
“It was obvious to the crime scene investigator that this door was open when that damage was created,” Keller Police Capt. Brenda Slovak, the lead investigator, told “20/20.”media:26192252
quicklist:5title:Oct. 14, 2011text:After hours of police questioning, Michele Williams changed her story.
She told police that Gregg Williams shot himself and that she attempted to cover it up to protect the couple’s daughter. She said she wiped her husband’s hand and the gun with disinfecting wipes and flushed them down the toilet.
Michele Williams said she also scratched around the door frame to make it look like a burglary and then hit herself in the face with the wrench police found at the crime scene so she would have an injury to support her claim of there being an intruder.
Police released Michele Williams later that day on Oct. 14, 2011.
On Nov. 3, 2011, the medical examiner’s office officially ruled Gregg Williams’ death a homicide.media:26243288
quicklist:6title:January 2012text:On Jan. 9, 2012, Williams was arrested for her husband’s murder.
Williams also faced charges of making a false report to a police officer and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
She bonded out of jail on Jan. 17, 2012, after her bail was reduced from $522,000 to $82,000.media:26192451
quicklist:7title:Michele Williams Makes a Plea Dealtext:Out on bail, Williams reinvented herself, going by the name Shelly Williams.
In June 2012, she was running a kettle bell fitness studio with her new boyfriend Gene Wallis, who was 15 years her junior and the one-time best friend of her son Lee O’Brien.
The next month on July 4, 2012, Williams was indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury on charges of murder and tampering with evidence in the shooting death of her husband.
Later in October 2013, Williams, in a deal with the prosecutor, pleaded guilty to deadly conduct and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutor Jack Strickland said they decided to enter into the plea deal because it appeared Williams might have asked for a lawyer during her interview with police. He worried that a judge might throw out the interview as evidence and that a jury would never hear Williams’ changing story.
“You don’t know how a court is going to rule. Does that mean she was asking for a lawyer? Does that mean that her interview should stop? Does that mean that anything post that remark is going to be suppressed?” Strickland said.
Williams told the court she was pregnant with twins, so her sentence was delayed until after her due date. She was scheduled to be sentenced to a recommended 18 years in prison in April 2014.media:26191356
quicklist:8title:Interview With the Fort Worth Star-Telegramtext:On Jan. 30, 2014, Williams was placed in jail after admitting that she was no longer pregnant.
Williams then gave a videotaped interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from jail on Feb. 4, 2014.
She told the newspaper that she took the plea deal so that she could be released sooner from prison and that she was confident that she would make parole at the first opportunity.
“With a plea deal I’m looking at a couple years before I’m out for parole,” Williams can be seen telling the Star-Telegram on a video of the interview obtained by ABC News.media:26192087
quicklist:9title:Michele Williams Is Forced to Stand Trialtext:While waiting for sentencing, Williams was also interviewed by the national crime television show “48 Hours” on Feb. 5, 2014.
Two days later, prosecutors filed a motion in an attempt to back out of the plea agreement, because Williams said in her interview with “48 Hours” that she was innocent.
Williams was ordered to stand trial for the murder of her husband. The judge and her attorneys recused themselves from the case.media:26190573
quicklist:10title:Michele Williams' Son Testifies for Prosecutiontext:Williams’ trial began Sept. 23, 2014. The state’s first witness was her own son, Andrew O’Brien.
He testified that in the days following her husband’s murder Williams asked him to help frame Kathy Williams, Gregg Williams’ ex-wife, for the crime.
According to O’Brien, his mother's plan was for him to get a friend to wear a sweater and fire a pistol so that the gunpowder residue would get onto the sweater and then plant the sweater in Kathy Williams’ car under the seat.
O’Brien testified that they were then supposed to use a payphone to call 911 and leave an anonymous tip so that police would search Kathy Williams’ car and find the sweater.media:26193180
quicklist:10title:The Verdicttext:Three years after Gregg Williams’ death, a jury took seven hours to decide whether it was suicide or if Michele Williams murdered him.
On Sept. 29, 2014, Michele Williams was found guilty of murder and guilty of one count of tampering with evidence. She was sentenced to 60 years in prison.media:26193013
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