Copyright 2006 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.
By LAWRENCE BUSER
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Witnesses described in dramatic detail Monday how a former Memphis firefighter went on a shooting rampage six years ago, killing his wife, two colleagues and a sheriff’s deputy.
Frederick Williams is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, but is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.
He waived a jury trial and faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted by Criminal Court Judge Arthur Bennett. More than a half-dozen witnesses testified Monday, including passersby who stopped to help when they saw the Williams’ home ablaze March 8, 2000.
One witness saw Williams shoot a deputy
who arrived in a patrol car - Williams fired at him as he ran for cover.
“He’s shooting everybody who comes around the house,” the witness, Arwin Penelton, 29, shouted on a chilling 911 tape that reflected the chaos unfolding at 4217 Germantown Road South. “He’s shooting at the fire department.”
Penelton later is heard shouting to arriving officers as they confronted Williams, who was leveling his shotgun at them.
“Shoot him! Shoot him!” he yells to the officers before speaking again to the 911 dispatcher. “They just shot him. They just shot the man.”
Williams was shot at least twice, according to witnesses.
Williams, 47, has admitted fatally shooting his wife, Stacey Williams; fellow firefighters Javier Lerma and William Blakemore and sheriff’s deputy Rupert Peete Jr. He has spent the past four years at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute in Nashville being treated for a variety of issues, including paranoid schizophrenia.
In November, Bennett ruled Williams competent to stand trial in that he understands the nature of the charges against him and can assist his attorneys in his defense. The issue at trial now will be whether Williams, at the time of the shootings, was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his acts because of a severe mental disease or defect.
Lawyers said the bench trial eliminates the chance for a hung jury or a mistrial if Williams has a relapse and cannot go forward. With a judge hearing the case, the trial could be delayed for as long as necessary to get him stabilized. Prosecutors agreed to drop their request for the death penalty.
State prosecutor Thomas Henderson and Asst. U.S. Atty. Lorraine Craig say Williams acted deliberately and with premeditation, luring fellow firefighters into his ambush by setting his house on fire after killing his wife.
“He had to reload his pump shotgun at least once during this spree of violence,” Craig said. “He had a plan. He was in control of his actions. He made choices of who he would shoot and who he would not shoot.”
Williams is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of aggravated assault and one count of arson.
Defense attorneys Arthur Quinn and Gerald Skahan contend Williams was not sane at the time and had been acting strange for at least six months prior to the shootings. They said he had been off work for a short period and under the care of psychiatrists because he thought people were trying to kill him and suspected that his wife was unfaithful.
“We’ll see the absolutely violence and the sadness of that day,” Quinn told the judge, “but the real issue is his state of mind. Don’t look for logic. Don’t look for rationality.”
Several families of victims have filed a civil suit alleging that psychiatrists who treated Williams in the months before the shootings did not meet an accepted standard of care and let him return to work too soon.
The first four witnesses were family members of the victims who described in painful detail how they learned of the shootings.
Caryn Lerma said fire officials would not tell her anything over the telephone, but that she feared something was wrong.
“I told them ‘Don’t send a red car for me, because I won’t get in it,’ ” she said, referring to a department protocol when a firefighter is dead or seriously injured. “At the hospital no one would tell me anything. Finally a nurse looked at me and shook her head, and then I knew.”
Mary Walker Peete said she felt sure her husband could not be the slain deputy because he always wore his bullet-proof vest.
“The girls always helped him put it on,” she said, referring to their daughters, who were then 7 and 5. “I thought, he’s fine, he’s fine. Then they told me he was dead. He was shot in the head.”
A pool of 175 potential jurors had been pre-selected in March and filled out detailed questionnaires in anticipation of the trial. They were released Monday.
The bench trial is expected to last about two five-day weeks, although attorneys have discussed the possibility of four-day weeks to allow Williams to be returned to MTMHI for weekends.
On Monday, Williams testified briefly that although he was on medication, he understood what he was doing in agreeing to waive a jury trial.
“I’m a little groggy,” he said after Bennett inquired how he felt. “I’ve had better days.”
The trial resumes this morning.