In the heart of the Lone Star State is Kaufman County, where in 2013, two prosecutors were slain in separate incidents caused by a pair of unlikely killers.
Season 2, Episode 2 of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler, now available to watch on Oxygen, delved into three murders that put Texas — and beyond — into a state of fear. A vigilant public remained on high alert, not just because of the audacity of an unknown killer but because of the profiles of those murdered just a couple of months apart.
“This case involved two very well-respected prosecutors who lost their lives, as well as an innocent bystander who was murdered in cold blood,” said veteran prosecutor Kelly Siegler, a woman from inside the justice system who understood all too well the risks of protecting the public.
Thankfully, with the help of special prosecutors Toby Shook and Bill Wirskye, two individuals would be implicated in the three senseless murders.
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The murder of Kaufman County prosecutor Mark Hasse
Mark Hasse featured on Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 2 Epsiode 2
On January 31, 2013, at around 8:40 a.m., felony prosecutor Mark Hasse, 57, of the Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office, was shot in a broad-daylight attack while walking from his vehicle to the county courthouse, about 25 miles southwest of Dallas. A witness reported hearing Hasse repeat “I’m sorry” to a masked gunman dressed in black before the culprit shot Hasse five times, including once in the face.
“[A] witness saw the shooter pull out another gun [and] start shooting in the air,” Shook explained while on the scene with Prosecuting Evil. “Probably to frighten everyone away.”
Witnesses said the gunman jumped into the passenger’s seat of a silver sedan before a second person drove the gunman from the scene.
The brazen attack injected fear into Kaufman County, with those within the justice system — including Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney Michael “Mike” McLelland — hellbent on finding out who killed one of theirs.
“I hope that the people who did this are watching,” McLelland told reporters then. “We’re gonna find you; we’re gonna pull you out of whatever hole you’re in and let the people of Kaufman County prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
Given Hasse’s career in prosecuting criminals, a suspect list felt immeasurable. However, it wasn’t long before the killer struck again.
The murders of Mike and Cynthia McLelland
It was the weekend of Easter Sunday when, on Saturday, March 30, 2013 — just two months after Hasse’s murder — Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia McLelland, were brutally shot to death inside their rural Kaufman County home.
Since McLelland was effectively Hasse’s boss, investigators immediately believed the two incidents were connected.
“In the McLelland crime scene, way too many rounds were fired just to kill two people,” according to Wirskye. “It seemed very personal; that they probably knew the person who killed them.”
Wirskye called it “overkill,” considering Mike McLelland sustained 16 gunshot wounds, and his wife sustained four, presumably from an AR-15 rifle.
Mike McLelland’s children, J.R. McLelland and Krista Ball, told Prosecuting Evil they had plans to meet the couple over the holiday weekend before the puzzling double homicide occurred. For the daughter, the reality didn’t set in until they laid the husband and wife to rest.
“Mike was a fatherly figure in the office, and his wife, Cynthia, would always bring in cookies and baked goods to the office, and very motherly in her interactions with the office staff,” said Lt. Justin Lewis of the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office.
Lewis, who worked with the sheriff’s office training and administration, also knew Hasse and said the former was “amazing to work with.”
“I lost some friends,” Lewis lamented in his interview with Prosecuting Evil.
A purported gunman comes forward
The investigation amped up one day after the McLelland murders when someone purporting to be the gunman went online and reached out to law enforcement through a web-based tipline. According to Shook and Wirskye, the tipster could not be traced because he was smart enough to use an anonymous I.P. address, meaning he could conceal his digital identity.
The author provided information that only the killer or killers would have known, including the firearms and ammunition used to kill all three victims. The purported culprit demanded that a local judge resign before the end of the week, or he would kill again.
“Do we have your attention now?” the tip stated, as published by Prosecuting Evil. “Your act of good faith will result in no other attacks this week … We will not be stopped.”
Meanwhile, local, state, and federal agencies looked into persons prosecuted by Hasse and McLelland. The only promising connection led to Eric Williams, a one-time commissioned police officer and elected justice of the peace (J.P.) convicted less than one year earlier for stealing several computer monitors from the county — a crime caught on camera.
According to J.R. McLelland, his father offered Williams an option to resign, but instead, Williams chose prosecution and was eventually found guilty.
Detectives visited Williams at his home, and while Williams denied knowing anything about the Hasse-McLelland murders, authorities found pieces of AR-style rifles inside the residence. And since Williams was prohibited from owning firearms due to his conviction, it was enough for investigators to find enough probable cause to search his home.
“Law enforcement did a quick download of his computer searches. He was kind of doing surveillance on Hasse and the McLellands,” Wirskye told Prosecuting Evil. “He was running license plates that were connected with the addresses, neighbors’ license plates, trying to get a pattern of life.”
Even more telling was a handwritten note by Williams on a scrap of paper. It contained a password for someone reporting a tip to the online hotline, specifically for the person who wrote the Easter Sunday message allegedly authored by the killer.
On April 12, 2013, authorities arrested Williams on charges connected to making terroristic threats.
Investigators look into a second suspect
On April 13, 2012, one day after Williams’ arrest, one of the suspect’s friends called investigators, claiming he’d rented a storage unit on Williams’ behalf. That day, authorities found a treasure trove of evidence, including police memorabilia and “tons of firearm-related evidence,” said Texas Ranger Rudy Flores.
Wirskye said a large amount of ammunition, including the type used to kill the McLellands’, was “a huge break.” That day, Eric Williams was charged with capital murder.
Still, especially since witnesses reported a getaway driver at the Hasse scene, investigators wondered if Williams acted alone. They hoped to glean more information from Williams’ wife, Kim Williams, described by law enforcement as a woman with health issues who rarely left the home.
Mrs. Williams volunteered to speak with officials and “broke down” after several hours of interrogation, confessing that she drove her husband to carry out all three homicides, according to Wirskye. Kim Williams admitted Eric Williams brazenly gunned down Hasse and, in the case of the McLellands, reportedly dressed as a S.W.A.T. officer and lied about a shooter in the area to gain access into the couple’s home.
“This was a pure revenge killing against the people that had prosecuted him,” according to Wirskye.
On April 18, 2013, Kim Williams, like her husband, was charged with capital murder. But the wife cooperated with investigators and soon pointed them to Lake Tawakoni, about 40 miles northeast of Kaufman. A dive team searched the waters with zero visibility for a month, nearly about to call it quits.
“We were hours away from abandoning the search … when we got the phone call that the dive team had found guns and a phone,” Wirskye told Prosecuting Evil.
The items were found in a black mask witnesses saw the shooter wear at the Hasse crime scene.
The 2014 trial of murder suspect Eric Williams
Eric Williams featured on Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 2 Epsiode 2
Prosecutors chose to try Mr. and Mrs. Williams separately, with Eric Williams going first for the murders of Mike and Cynthia McLelland. The trial began on December 1, 2014, and Shook and Wirskye emphasized two key factors of the case against Williams: the password that connected him to the online tip and the ballistic evidence collected from the McLelland home.
The murder weapon was never recovered, but forensic experts took the stand, testifying that ammunition found at the storage unit matched the ammunition used to kill the couple, which was “as good as finding the murder weapon,” Shook told Prosecuting Evil.
After a three-day trial and just two days of jury deliberations, Eric Williams was found guilty of the capital murders of Mike and Cynthia McLelland. But, what Mike McLelland’s daughter, Krista Ball, called the most “nerve-wracking” part of the trial came during the punishment phase, in which jurors had to decide on life in prison or death by lethal injection.
For that, Kim Williams — who did not testify in the criminal proceedings — took the stand.
Mrs. Williams told the court that she joined Eric Williams in the murders because he sought revenge on the criminal justice employees for his 2012 theft conviction. Cynthia McLelland was killed because she was collateral damage.
On the stand, Kim Williams said her husband planned on killing Kaufman County Judge Erleigh Wiley and Senior District Judge Glen Ashworth. The co-conspirator also claimed she and Eric Williams were “happy” and “joyous” after the McLelland murders and celebrated with a steak cookout.
“I so believed in Eric and everything that he told me,” Mrs. Williams told the court. “His anger was my anger.”
Prosecutor Wirskye said there was “an overwhelming sense of relief” when the jury returned an overnight decision to sentence Eric Williams to death.
As part of a plea deal, Kim Williams agreed to serve 40 years behind bars. She will be eligible for parole in 2034.
“That’s not going to bring Dad back, it’s not going to bring Cynthia back, it’s not going to bring Mark Hasse back,” J.R. McLelland told Prosecuting Evil. “You’re still dealing with life without them.”
An execution date for Eric Williams has yet to be scheduled.
Watch all-new episodes of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen and streaming the next day on Peacock.
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