By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A jury in a Fourth District Court trial held in Nephi
found Howell Williams guilty of murdering his wife nine
years ago and then dumping her body in a remote area of Juab
County.
The eight-member jury found Williams guilty of first
degree murder for the killing of Barbara Williams. The
verdict was read following three hours of deliberation.
Williams waived his right to a sentencing date and
Judge Ray Harding Sr. sentenced Williams to five years to
life which will be served in Utah State Prison. "The
sentence will run concurrent with the 13-year sentence the
defendant has remaining of his prison term in Florida State
Penitentiary," said Harding.
Following the trial, Williams was taken to Utah State
Prison to begin serving his sentence.
Earlier his defense attorney, Milton Harmon, told
jurors that Williams had tried to get away from his wife but
she had found and followed him. "He was under extreme
emotional distress and doesn't even remember pulling the
trigger," said Harmon.
"It took two days for him to realize she was dead,"
Harmon said. During that time, Williams returned to the
bathroom and talked to his wife as though she were still
alive.
"He truly regrets the death of his wife. He did not
intend to kill her but to scare her," said Harmon.
Williams took the stand in his own defense in an
attempt to get a reduced sentence of manslaughter. Williams
related that he and Barbara Williams were not getting along
and that she was blackmailing him into staying with her and
not getting a divorce.
"I did not want to kill her, I wanted to scare her,"
Williams said. He offered the comment in explanation of the
reason why he had taken a 22 caliber handgun into the
bathroom where Barbara Williams was bathing.
Juab County Sheriff David Carter, one of several
witnesses in the trial, told how Barbara Williams was
finally identified.
The decaying body of Barbara Williams was found in
1990, said Carter, near Mills in South Juab County. The nude
body bore a tattoo of a heart containing the words,
"Howell's heart throb" and had eight gunshot wounds to the
head.
The condition of the body and its location near a
freeway exit led investigators to believe the woman might
have been the victim of a serial murderer.
Failing to find an identity for the women from records
available at the time, Carter placed the information about
the woman on the national computer system. "We also had a
drawing done, in which the artist worked from the details of
the skull and other information found at the site where the
body was found," said Carter.
The resulting drawing, which was identical to photo
later provided by the victim's mother, was shown on TV
several times in an attempt to find anyone who might be
looking for Barbara Williams.
"Mrs. William's mother, who was still living in
Florida, reported her daughter missing in 1997," said
Carter. It was still later when Bill Gootee, and
investigator in Florida, ran across the file and compared
notes with the information Carter had placed on NCIC
(National Crime Investigation Computer).
"He called me and we discussed the similarities
between the victim and the reported missing
person&emdash;size, weight, time," said Carter. One final
piece of information was that the skull of the victim had a
pellet above the right eye and Barbara Howell's mother had
provided that information as one of the ways to identify her
daughter."
Carter and Deputy Justin Kimball traveled to Florida
to pick up Williams from the prison there and transfer him
to Juab County Jail.
Williams told law enforcement officers he had written
a letter of confession after shooting Barbara and had sealed
it in a wall at the apartment the two were living in
Midvale. Carter reported the letter had been found in the
exact location Williams had identified.
The confession was admitted as evidence and was read
by Carter.
David Gray, state medical examiner, said the eight
bullets fired into Barbara Williams were located in a
head-band of holes which entered the skull from the front
and side&emdash;across the forehead and near the
temples.
"The flesh, muscle and tissue, kept the bullets from
going clear through the head," said Gray.
After Barbara's body had been left at Mills, said
David Leavitt, Juab County Attorney, Williams went back to
Midvale and told neighbors and friends that she had left
him. He packed up and moved to Arizona and, two years later,
filed for a divorce which he was granted.
Two of the shots fired from the automatic pistol, said
Leavitt, were located so closely together that they looked
like one shot. In addition, the pellet found above her eye
had also been fired, years before Barbara William's death,
by Williams who shot her intentionally.
In addition to the gunshot wounds to the head, Barbara
Williams also had a bruised chest consistent with physical
abuse inflicted by the defendant.
"The defendant was being blackmailed by his wife for
various crimes and she had threatened to turn him in if he
left her," said Leavitt.
Williams claimed that he shot his wife when she
reached up and grabbed the gun which he had in his hand and
it went off.
"That's one time, what about the other seven times?"
asked Leavitt. "What better place to kill someone than in
the bathroom with the evidence down the drain?"
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