19 Dec 18
The Reporter
Attorneys in the trial of a Vallejo man charged with a murder more than five years ago in the city argued vigorously Tuesday morning to either convict or acquit the defendant, and the jury began deliberations shortly after noon in Vallejo.
The panel will determine the fate of Michael Leon Williams, who faces a first-degree murder charge related to the March 17, 2013, shooting death of Michael Weil, 65, a transient who reportedly was staying in the garage of a home in the 400 block of Hichborn Street, not far from Mare Island Way. If convicted, Williams faces 25 years to life in state prison, with the possibility of more time behind bars because of a prior strike, court records indicate.
After a four-day trial and initial deliberations, the jury will return to Judge Daniel Healy’s courtroom at 8:30 a.m. today to continue mulling the case, which took a turn after a November 2016 Solano County Jail interview with a witness, a female acquaintance of Williams.
Deputy District Attorney Melainee Collins began her final argument dramatically, saying, “I killed that mother——” and “If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you.”
She referred to statements Williams made to Elizabeth Logan after Williams allegedly shot Weil and drove away from the residence, statements Logan recalled during her testimony Monday.
Collins described Williams, who is in his early 30s, as “so self-absorbed” that he would kill to get what he wanted, which was “rent money” that the prosecutor said he did not deserve and a bottle of Everclear alcohol that Weil refused to give up on demand.
“Michael Williams is evil,” she said, standing at a lectern and facing the jury box, adding that the evidence indicated Williams shot and killed Weil.
She also referred to another witness’ testimony, saying Deidre “Skye” Bennett, a resident of the Hichborn home, who said she saw two black men leaving the detached garage and walk down a steep driveway to the street. Collins said Bennett identified Williams, who had a relationship with her sister, “even though she did not see his face.”
Collins disputed arguments made by defense attorney Vincent Maher, who said Logan at the time had smoked methamphetamine with Williams the day before and was a known substance abuser, thu, her testimony was unreliable.
Collins implored jurors to evaluate “all the statements” made during the trial, adding that Logan “was consistent” in her remarks about Williams’ behavior after the shooting.
She said Williams made “a decision to kill,” that he had malice aforethought, in part because he went to a trailer park to retrieve a .22-caliber revolver eventually used in the shooting.
“He took a gun and he took Mr. Weil’s life,” said Collins.
At the outset of his closing argument, Maher referred to a quote he attributed to Shakespeare: “Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive.” It was written by Sir Walter Scott, from his 1808 poem “Marmion.”
But Maher’s point was this: That witnesses against Williams lied on the stand, that their recollections were unreliable, that they were people “who have used methamphetamine all their lives,” he asserted.
His statement alluded to a physician’s testimony on Monday during which the doctor, an expert in addiction pathology, detailed the consequences of prolonged methamphetamine use including impaired memory, distorted thinking, its impacts on perception and its potential to lead to “toxic psychosis.” Frequent meth users, Dr. Alex Stacup said, are also aggressive, violent, go without sleep for days and their memories can be clouded.
Maher discounted Bennett’s testimony that one of the men she saw walking down the driveway to Hichborn had “loose dreads” and may have been Williams. He showed booking photographs of Williams, questioned shortly after the shooting but not arrested and who at the time did not have loose dreads, and another man Kristopher Cathey, who did.
Maher also challenged the jurors to discount Logan’s testimony, saying it was from a person who, as she testified, had only been “clean and sober” for 30 days, and to question Bennett’s 911 call, in which she said one of the suspects “might have been Michael Williams.”
Maher also noted that several witnesses appeared to give contradictory testimony and asserted police investigators “didn’t verify anything,” including the identity of a man named “Ray Ray,” from whom Williams allegedly retrieved the gun, and whether or not Williams drove a green Jeep that belonged his mother on the day of the shooting.
“The people’s burden” of proof beyond a reasonable doubt must reflect the evidence, he said.
In one particularly dramatic moment, Maher stepped away from the lectern, walked over the defense table, pounded on it, with Williams sitting expressionless there, looked at the jurors and said that the prosecutor “wants you to find the defendant guilty” on, essentially, questionable evidence.
In other statements, Maher said the DA investigator, Raul I. Munoz, a former Vallejo police officer and detective, reported on what Logan, 38, told him during the November 2016 jail interview “but he didn’t verify anything.”
“This is an opportunity to bring justice to this case,” he said, ending his closing argument.
In rebuttal, Collins noted that none of the witnesses knew or what the others saw or believed.
She added that the investigation took years to complete and scoffed at Maher’s notion that Logan’s testimony should be discounted “because we don’t know who Ray Ray is?”
She reiterated that Logan was “consistent” in her testimony and reminded jurors that she initially did not come forward in 2013 because Williams threatened her life.
“Why would she lie about that?” Collins asked rhetorically.
