Suspect in Stabbing Death of Catholic Priest Had No Connection to Victim or Town, Prosecutors Say
Kierre Williams, a 43-year-old man, has been ordered to be held without bond as he awaits trial for the first-degree murder, burglary, and two felony weapons counts in the stabbing death of Reverend Stephen Gutgsell. The incident took place in the rectory next to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Calhoun, a small town in eastern Nebraska.
During a court hearing on Thursday, prosecutors revealed that Williams had no connection to the victim or the town where the crime occurred. The murder charge alone carries a possible death sentence, as noted by the judge.
Williams, who attended the hearing via video conference wearing a jail-issued orange jumpsuit, appeared taken aback by the mention of the murder charge being a capital punishment crime. He said he was told by his lawyer, Brian Craig of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, that he faced a sentence of life in prison if convicted of the murder charge.
County Attorney Scott VanderSchaaf, the lead prosecutor in the case, confirmed Thursday after the hearing that the case is eligible for the death penalty, but said he'll decide at a later date on whether to seek to have Williams executed if he's convicted.
"We have until 30 days before trial begins to make that decision," VanderSchaaf said. "We're still early in the process of gathering information in this case."
Gutgsell's stabbing is the second killing this year in the normally quiet Omaha bedroom community of Fort Calhoun, home to about 1,000 people. Investigators have said both killings happened during break-ins where there was no clear connection between the intruders and the victims.
Williams lived 75 miles away from Fort Calhoun in Sioux City, Nebraska.
Local authorities learned shortly after taking Williams into custody that he was a convicted felon with multiple warrants against him in other states, according to an affidavit.
According to Assistant Washington County Attorney Erik Petersen, Williams has a criminal history in multiple states. This includes numerous cases in Florida from his teenage years, a drug possession conviction in Texas, and an assault charge in Sioux City, Iowa earlier this year.
