FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – An Allen County jury Thursday found a man guilty of attempted murder in connection to the stabbing of a pregnant woman in 2022.
No one from defendant Brandon K. Williams family was visible in the courtroom as Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull read the verdicts :
Guilty on attempted murder, aggravated battery, domestic battery with bodily injury to a pregnant woman, domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon, strangulation when the victim is pregnant and intimidation.
At closing arguments Thursday morning, Deputy Prosecutor Tasha Lee repeatedly played “snippets” from verbal and video evidence that included 911 calls and police body cam video.
“He was literally caught red-handed trying to kill Wydreka Williams,” Lee told the jury. “When they kicked in the door, that’s when he stopped his actions.”
Then Lee pointed to Williams’ statements just after police apparently interrupted the bloody drama. The screwdriver used to stab Wydreka more than 48 times was near her body. His fingerprints were found on it along with her DNA. The couch and rug were blood-soaked along with Williams’ T-shirt he pulled over his head before he was handcuffed and put into a squad car.
“I made a decision. Everybody has a breaking point,” Williams is heard saying on tape. When Wydreka repeatedly asks the officers for help, Williams says “when you’re toxic as f—-, nobody can help her man.”
Wydreka, whose relationship with Williams was and is unclear even though they both have the last name, never testified at the trial. With sparse attendance, it didn’t appear she was there, nor was her cousin, Felecia, who called 911 twice, first at 5:34 p.m. July 31, 2022 to report that Brandon, Wydreka’s boyfriend, was at her cousin’s apartment and was “drunk and belligerent.” The second call a few minutes later ended in sobs.
A downstairs neighbor also called 911 to report he heard screams. It was screams, moaning and gasping that made the officers believe the situation was so dangerous, it was necessary to kick in the door.
But Marcia Linsky, a seasoned defense attorney who has also served as a magistrate and prosecutor in the county, wasn’t going to let what seemed obvious convict her client without a fight.
She found fault with the lack of medical evidence and pointed out that most of Wydreka’s wounds were head wounds that tend to bleed profusely. The victim’s condition may have been life-threatening on the way to Parkview Regional Medical Center, but was upgraded to non life threatening.
In a masterful stroke, Linsky convinced Gull to eliminate the prosecution’s last witness, Dr. Julie Tillman, saying that the defense and none of the charges were ever about danger to the 24-week old baby Wydreka was carrying, but about the injuries to Wydreka herself. Why bring in an OB-GYN doctor when that evidence was not allowed?
“We just want to talk about the baby,” Linsky argued. “That’s all this is about..to inflame the jury.”
First Gull agreed that the testimony would be limited to Wydreka’s condition and injuries and then refused to allow Tillman to testify after it was revealed that Tillman had been seated in the courtroom and heard the entire back and forth.
“She had no business being in here, listening to this discussion,” Gull said.
After the guilty verdicts were announced WANE had a chance to talk with Lee and her team.
“We are absolutely relieved, because, this case was important because of the sheer brutality of the injuries on top of the fact that the victim is not yet ready. So we prosecuted this case without her. It definitely tells domestic batterers that the victims don’t have to be on board for them to be held accountable for their actions and we can get justice for people even if they’re not ready to (appear in court) yet,” Lee said.
“To the best of our knowledge, the baby is healthy.”
McBride said it was a case that would stay with him. It’s not often an officer is able to enter as a crime is being committed.
Williams, 42, is scheduled to be sentenced August 4.
