bporterfield@pvdemocrat.com —
An Elmore City man has been found guilty on some counts and cleared of others after a trial this week focused on assault and kidnapping allegations he’s faced for more than two years.
The verdicts were handed down for Stan Williams, 39, who on the third day of testimony claimed to be sorry and not want to hurt anyone during a domestic assault incident on Dec. 21, 2010 involving a group of women that included his estranged wife and some friends.
District Judge Greg Dixon first oversaw the non-jury trial before concluding Williams was guilty of such formal charges as burglary, kidnapping, assault and battery and feloniously pointing a firearm.
The judge ordered on Thursday a report first be compiled before Williams is sentenced in the case on March 26.
During his testimony Williams denied being intoxicated on the day of the incident, instead claiming it was anger from feeling betrayed that ignited it all at the Elmore City area residence.
Williams said he was set off when a family friend told him that his wife had been involved in an extramarital affair.
With the two separated and Williams living elsewhere at the time, he testified his wife, Lisa Williams, told him that night to go into the house and collect his belongings.
During her testimony earlier in the trial it was Lisa Williams who claimed he ran toward the house while threatening the women inside.
“I was devastated, heart-broke. Yeah I was angry,” Stan Williams said.
“I’d known them my whole life,” he said referring to lifelong friends Jessica Hoover and Lacrista Medina.
“They knew about this other guy and didn’t tell me. I felt like they betrayed me. I was just devastated.”
Once inside the house Williams admits to grabbing the hair of his wife and Hoover, slapping them and throwing them to the ground.
“I’m extremely sorry for that. I’m sorry now and I was sorry the night when this happened. I’m not going to deny it.”
He also admitted to throwing things around and striking the furniture in anger.
The defendant even admitted to pointing a single shot gun at the women but denied any intention of hurting them.
“It was not my intention to shoot anybody. I just wanted to scare them. I just wanted to intimidate them. I wanted them to feel what I was feeling,” he said.
“If I could take it back I would in a heartbeat. I went from having friends to having no contact with people I’d known my whole life. Yeah I regret it, but I felt they betrayed me.”
Garvin County Assistant District Attorney Tara Portillo used her closing comments to argue it didn’t matter if the defendant was sorry for his actions — actions that should be punished with jail time.
“These women testified they had guns put to their heads, all had their live threatened,” Portillo said.
“It’s hard to quantify that terror. The damage to those women, the terror they felt, does not heal. Saying you’re sorry doesn’t cut it,” she said.
“It’s time for Stan Williams to take responsibility.”
Portillo asked the judge for Williams to be ordered to serve 20 years in prison with another decade suspended.
On the other side defense attorney Charles Douglas argued many of the allegations against his client had been exaggerated by women who wanted revenge.
“The testimony from the state’s witnesses were designed to embellish the facts and exact the maximum punishment,” Douglas said.
“This is about getting the maximum revenge,” he said. “It’s a revenge thing now.”
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