The retrial of Eddie Lee Williams, convicted 10 years ago of fatally shooting one man and wounding another in a drug-related dispute, is set to begin Monday morning in the courtroom of Lebanon County President Judge John Tylwalk.
Prosecutors allege that Williams and two accomplices drove to a Lebanon apartment complex on March 14, 2014, to settle a drug debt. Police responding to a report of gunshots found Marcus Ortiz dead and Keith Crawford seriously wounded.
Williams and his accomplices were spotted by officers driving from the scene. They were captured after a chase, and all were charged with multiple offenses including criminal homicide.
Before the start of Williams’ 2015 trial, one of his accomplices, Rick Cannon, confessed and pleaded guilty to Ortiz’s murder. In his opening statement, Williams’ trial lawyer told the jury that Cannon, not Williams, pulled the trigger. The district attorney objected, based on how Cannon’s murder charge was worded.
Responding to the district attorney’s objection, Judge Samuel Kline told the jury that Cannon had confessed to murder plus 19 related charges, then read all 20 to the jury, nine of which clearly named Williams as a co-conspirator.
Williams was convicted of homicide and Kline sentenced him to life in prison.
A federal district court in 2022 awarded Williams a new trial based on a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a defendant is deprived of his constitutional right to confront witnesses against him when a non-testifying co-defendant’s confession naming him as a participant in the crime is introduced at trial. A federal appeals court upheld the new trial award in 2024.
District Attorney Pier Hess Graf is trying the case for the commonwealth. Harrisburg attorney Jonathan Crisp is representing Williams.
Trial is expected to last all week, and possibly extend into next week.
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