KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) — A former justice of the peace has been charged with murder in the slayings of a North Texas district attorney and his assistant who prosecuted him for theft, officials announced Thursday.
Eric Lyle Williams, 46, is charged in the shooting deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, last month, and assistant prosecutor Mark Hasse in January, Sheriff David Byrnes announced at a news conference. Williams is being held on $23 million bond.
Williams has been jailed since he was arrested Saturday and charged with making a terroristic threat for allegedly emailing an anonymous threat to law officers one day after the McLellands were found dead.
Williams' wife, Kim Williams, was arrested Wednesday and charged with capital murder in the killings. An arrest affidavit alleges she confessed to taking part in the killings and told investigators her husband was the gunman.
Authorities on Thursday said Kim Williams was the getaway driver when her husband allegedly approached Hasse as he walked into work and fatally shot him. They contend she was a passenger in late March when her husband drove to the McLelland home in the Dallas suburb of Forney.