ST. LOUIS • A Missouri death row inmate scheduled to die Jan. 28 for the murder of a former Post-Dispatch reporter is seeking a last-minute court order for additional DNA testing.
But Marcellus Williams, 46, suffered a blow Wednesday when a federal judge called his bid for a delay “frivolous†and dismissed it.
In 2001, Williams was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary and two counts of armed criminal action and sentenced to death for the murder of Lisha Gayle, 42. Gayle worked for the newspaper for 11 years, leaving in 1992 to do volunteer work with children and the poor.
She was fatally stabbed Aug. 11, 1998, in her home in the gated Ames Place neighborhood of University City.
In court filings, Williams’ attorneys claim that the case against their client was built solely on the contradictory testimony of two “snitches†who were out for the $10,000 reward money, including his former girlfriend, Laura Asaro, and a former cellmate, Henry Cole.
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There was no forensic evidence pointing to Williams, said Kent Gipson, one of the attorneys. He said it was even more striking given the violence of the crime.
Gipson hopes that DNA testing, and comparison of any resulting DNA against federal and state databases and a similar, unsolved murder in Pagedale, could reveal evidence that would prove Williams innocent. And he says that whatever happened in the Gayle case, Williams would probably never leave prison, as he is also serving time for unrelated crimes.
Williams’ past appeals have all ultimately failed.
At trial, prosecutors said Williams had confessed to Asaro and Cole.
Asaro took police to the house where she said that Williams had traded a laptop belonging to Gayle’s husband, Dr. Dan Picus, to a man for crack cocaine. Police found the computer. At trial, the homeowner said he had lent the money to Williams and kept the laptop as collateral.
Prosecutor Keith Larner told jurors in closing arguments that the homeowner, Asaro and Cole didn’t know each other, and that Cole and Asaro knew details of the crime that were never made public. He also said that Williams had kept a trophy of the crime — a Post-Dispatch ruler in the glove compartment of his car.
Like Williams’ current attorneys, his trial attorneys attacked the witnesses’ inconsistencies.
They also pointed out that defense testing found no DNA from Williams under Gayle’s fingernails, despite Asaro’s claims that Williams had scratch marks on his neck the night of the murder.
CURRENT APPEALS
Williams filed an appeal with the Missouri Supreme Court Jan. 9. In a response filed Thursday, the Missouri Attorney General’s office said that DNA evidence was available at Williams’ original trial and could have been raised before. The office also said that it was unlikely that there was any more DNA evidence to test.
But Gipson said that Williams’ appeals had only been completed in late 2013, and they had been waiting for the Missouri Attorney General’s office to ask for an execution date to do more. He said that through the appeals process, additional evidence has been uncovered that casts further doubt on Williams’ guilt.
Williams’ federal suit, which says that ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch has refused to release the evidence for testing, was filed Monday.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel dismissed it two days later. McCulloch, who is represented by the state Attorney General’s office, had not yet responded.
Sippel, who heard a Williams appeal more than nine years ago, wrote that the new appeal “is frivolous and fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.â€
Picus declined to comment Thursday.