Nebraska judge allows murder case to proceed against suspect in killing of small-town priest

BLAIR, Nebraska.- A Nebraska judge agreed Wednesday that the fact that the suspect was found lying on top of a seriously injured priest and covered in blood stains last month inside the house where the priest lived next to his church small town suggests that Kierre Williams was responsible for the murder.

Washington County Judge Edward Matney ruled there was probable cause for the murder case against Williams, 43, to move forward. He will continue to be held without bail until he returns to court early next month to plead guilty to the murder and weapons charges he faces. His lawyer has refused to discuss the case.

Prosecutors have said there appears to be no connection between Williams and the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell, who was fatally stabbed Dec. 10 inside the rectory of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in tiny Fort Calhoun. The one-story home was still wrapped in crime scene tape Wednesday, nearly a month after the attack.

The priest’s death came just four months after another apparently random home invasion massacre in the city of 1,100 people eight miles north of Omaha and shook residents’ confidence in their safety.

Washington County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Erik Petersen on Wednesday summarized key evidence against Williams that he had outlined for the most part in court documents last month. Sheriff’s Deputy Brady Tucker talked about what he saw after rushing to the house minutes after the priest reported an intruder that Sunday morning, and a detective recounted what the initial investigation showed.

Tucker testified that he found Williams lying crosswise on top of Gutgsell, whose face was covered in blood. Williams complied with orders to show his hands and move away from the priest, and was quickly detained.

Although Williams did not have a gun when he was arrested, investigators later found a broken knife with a serrated blade amid a bloodstain on the floor of Gutgsell’s bedroom.

When Williams was interviewed in jail hours after the 65-year-old priest died in an Omaha hospital, he presented evidence of the attack. An autopsy confirmed that he died from multiple stab wounds.

“He was wearing ski pants, a coat, tennis shoes and some sort of winter clothes,” Detective Greg Corns said. “There was blood on the outside of his pants, shoes and shirt. There is blood on the sole of her shoes and some blood splatters on the top of her shoes as well.”

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty in this case.

Williams has an extensive criminal history with several felony convictions in other states. But at the time of the murder, he was working at a meatpacking plant in Sioux City, Iowa. It is unclear what brought him to Fort Calhoun.

The Archdiocese of Omaha said the church Gutgsell served at Fort Calhoun will now have to share a priest with two other churches in the nearby small towns of Blair and Tekamah. Daily Mass will rotate between the three churches during the week.

It was not immediately clear whether St. John the Baptist will again use the rectory where Gutgsell was attacked again. The priest assigned to the three small churches is based in Blair.

Gutgsell’s brother thanked the Fort Calhoun congregation in a message in the church bulletin last weekend for joining nearly 1,000 other mourners at the priest’s funeral last month. The Rev. Michael Gutgsell said he and his brothers will keep St. John the Baptist Church in their prayers.