Pollock man guilty of attempted murder of wife, theft of gun

Sentencing was set for March 10 after a Pollock man was found guilty by a Rapides Parish jury on Thursday of two of three charges against him.

Ernest Ray Williams, 49, was found guilty by a jury of attempted second-degree murder and theft of a firearm. Jurors found him not guilty on a charge of aggravated cruelty to animals, however.

Jurors heard closing arguments on Thursday morning. Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Numa V. Metoyer III told them that the case involved domestic violence, and that the facts were "relatively simple."

Williams was found in May 2013, hiding in a workshop on his in-laws' Hineston property next to a guest home that was occupied by his estranged wife. He had with him a stolen and loaded AR-15, along with magazines and boxes of ammunition. He had left suicide notes for his brother and his son, which were reported to the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office by the brother and a sister.

The siblings were fearful that Williams, who just had been released from a Lafayette mental-health facility, was going to kill himself and his estranged wife because he'd just learned that he soon would be served with divorce papers.

According to testimony in the trial, Williams had planned to kill himself, his wife, her family members and any police officers who got in the way.

Metoyer recounted the testimony of Williams' ex-wife about the abuse and death threats she'd suffered, saying that Williams manipulated his wife through cycles of violence and niceness.

"Domestic violence is always about power and control," he said.

"This is the only way that Ernest Williams knows how to love."

Closing arguments set in Pollock man's attempted murder trial

Williams had stolen an AR-15 from the Alexandria office of a law firm, Hunter & Beck, where he was a trusted handyman renovating the office. He had replaced the weapon with a toy gun that resembled it, even painting the orange safety tip of the toy black.

When two Rapides Sheriff's deputies arrived at the Hineston home to check on Williams' wife, one spotted Williams in the workshop. Williams surrendered, but Metoyer reminded jurors that action did not absolve him of his attempt to kill his wife.

"Changing his mind later does not get rid of guilt," he said. "That is not a defense. That absolutely is not a defense."

As he had during the trial, Metoyer reminded jurors how much ammunition Williams brought with him to the workshop, where he had a clear shot at anyone who might enter or leave the guest home. He stayed inside the workshop for about six hours overnight and into the morning.

"That is not for suicide; that is for war."

Metoyer admitted that a dead dog never was found, even though Williams had told a deputy he shot one as he made his way to the workshop. But he said Williams' admission was enough to convict him.

Williams' defense attorney, Joseph Kutch of Pineville, disagreed. He told jurors that the prosecution had not presented the body of a dog so that they could substantiate that charge.

"What dog?" he asked them. "Did you see a dog?"

Kutch also contended that Williams wasn't guilty of the AR-15 theft because he never intended to keep the gun. And he noted that Williams never made an attempt to attack his wife or anyone else during the hours he sat in the workshop.

"Did nothing but sit there and smoke cigarettes," he said. "Never fired the weapon, never brandished the weapon."

If Williams had an intent to kill his wife, he changed his mind, said Kutch.

"Intent can go away real quick," he said.

While jurors agreed with Kutch on the cruelty charge, they sided with the prosecution on the other two charges. Jurors were unanimous in their vote on the attempted second-degree murder charge. The vote on the theft of a firearm charge was 11-1.

Williams expressed no emotion as the verdicts were read, sitting at the defense table with his hands folded. Kutch asked 9th Judicial District Judge Mary Lauve Doggett to set a post-conviction bond for his client, which she denied.