A convicted murderer seeking a way out of his life sentence has asked the state's top court to allow his case to go back to trial court after the discovery of an eyewitness account that was not disclosed during his trial.
Alvin Williams, 44, was sentenced to life in prison in late 1994 following his conviction for first-degree murder in Pulaski County Circuit Court in the shooting of a self-professed Blood gang member, Ron Henry, in March of that year.
Williams claimed self-defense but was convicted. Two attempts at appeals before the Arkansas Supreme Court failed.
But according to Williams' attorney, there was no mention at trial, or in the prosecutor's file, of an interview with an acquaintance of Williams who saw the shooting and who suggested to police that the gun used in Henry's slaying was first drawn by Henry.
According to the witness, Donald Smith, Williams asked him to "get the gun" from Henry and it wasn't fired until after a physical struggle over the weapon.
On Monday, Williams' attorney, John C. Williams (no relation), filed a brief with the Supreme Court asking it to "reinvest jurisdiction" in the trial court in the hope, ultimately, that Alvin Williams could get a new trial.
"Any relief from that [life sentence]," John C. Williams said. "Any time he can get back in the free world is important to him and [his family]."
According to court records, Henry went to his girlfriend's parents' house and began fighting with her parents.
During the fight, Henry yelled that he was a "Blood" and that he'd send gang members after the parents.
At that time, Alvin Williams and his acquaintance, Smith, whom Williams only knew as "Long Beach," were passing by and, according to police, intervened in part because of Williams' ties to the Crips, a rival of Henry's gang.
The two scuffled over the gun, and Alvin Williams got hold of the gun and fired several times, killing Henry with one blast to the chest.
During Alvin Williams' trial, several witnesses identified him as the shooter, but multiple witnesses said they didn't see the fight until after the shooting started.
Alvin Williams was the only one who testified before a jury that the weapon belonged to Henry.
"Long Beach," or Smith, told officers in June 1994, three months after the shooting, that he didn't think Alvin Williams had a gun and that he saw the gun in Henry's hand when the two men started fighting over it.
Despite the interview, the information was not included in the original prosecutor's file that was provided to Alvin Williams' defense attorney.
Alvin Williams didn't learn of the documented police interview until 2010, and subsequent requests to see the prosecutor's file have produced copies that have been inconsistent in their page count and contents, the filing said.
John Williams' filing seeks a chance to return to trial court under a Brady violation, a longstanding precedent that newly discovered evidence that was suppressed by prosecutors can constitute a violation of a defendant's rights to due process.
According to the court filing, Smith was told to head out of town by officers after his interview.
John Williams argued that had Alvin Williams known about "Long Beach's" interview, his self-defense claim at trial may have ended in a different result.
The only two witnesses who claimed that Alvin Williams brought the gun to the fight were the parents of Henry's girlfriend, who were also the grandparents to Henry's child.
"In light of the eyewitness testimony's unreliability, the outcome likely would have been different had the jury heard that Mr. Williams reacted as if Mr. Henry had the weapon ... that the handle of the gun was in Mr. Henry's hand," John Williams wrote. "Even if this evidence did not lead to acquittal, the jury may have determined that Mr. Williams deserved on of the lesser charges ... moreover, even had the jury still found Mr. Williams guilty ... Smith's information might have led it to exercise its sentencing discretion."
State attorneys are resisting Alvin Williams' request, arguing that the convicted murderer didn't act "diligently" enough, either by seeking out Long Beach during his trial or by acting sooner after he discovered his former acquaintance's account in 2010.
They also argue that for a Brady violation to be valid, it would have to demonstrate that the withheld evidence would be helpful to Alvin Williams.
According to senior assistant attorney general David Raupp, it was "simply irrelevant" who had the gun first.
"Smith's statement shows that [Alvin Williams] interjected himself into a domestic squabble, against Smith's advice to him, perhaps because Mr. Henry was from a rival gang," Raupp wrote. "Even if Smith's statements settled that Mr. Henry had the gun first, which the State disputes, that fact would not demonstrate that [Alvin Williams] acted reasonably in self-defense when, after securing the gun (whether from Mr. Henry or not), he hunted down his victim and purposely shot and killed him."
On Tuesday, Alvin Williams remained incarcerated at a maximum security prison in Tucker.
Metro on 12/30/2015