In 2013, two prosecutors and a prosecutor's wife were murdered in Kaufman County, Texas. The case gained national attention in the United States due to speculation that the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang was responsible, but this was later found to be untrue.
But instead of starting a new life with his great catch of a girlfriend, the 29-year-old lawyer ended up beginning a life sentence in a Michigan state prison less than a year after he shot Leann Fletcher, also 29. For this week, I searched to find out whether Fletcher’s legal training has won him any leniency.
Murdaugh has been accused of swindling millions. The lawyer was arrested on Oct. 14 and charged with stealing millions of dollars from a settlement intended for the children of a housekeeper who died at the family’s home in 2018. The death was considered an accidental fall at the time.
LANSING, MICHIGAN-The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that a judge accused of steering business to her defense lawyer-lover who later murdered his pregnant wife be suspended for 6 months without pay.
Naked Justice. Naked Justice refers to episode 28 of the Season 6 of the television series Forensic Files which was broadcast for the first time on November 26, 2001.
In 1999, expectant mother Leann Fletcher is reported dead in her Hazel Park, Michigan home of an accidental gunshot wound to the head. Was the wound self-inflicted, and if it was, why would this young mother with so much to live for kill herself?
Judge in fatal love triangle gets 6-month suspension. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that a judge accused of steering business to her defense lawyer-lover who later murdered his pregnant wife be suspended for 6 months without pay. In a 29-page decision Friday, the court revised a proposal by the Judicial Tenure Commission ...
Chrzanowski is accused of assigning 56 cases to Fletcher during their two-year affair and initially lying to police about her relationship with him. The court ruled that Chrzanowski's penalty will start Jan. 1 to give her credit for the 17-month interim suspension already served.
"It's disappointing that she's going to be off the bench for as long as she will be," he said. Chrzanowski has been on paid leave since July 2000, when Hazel Park attorney Michael Fletcher was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder in ...
Marshals, the Georgia State Police and many others, the jury found Moody guilty of more than 70 charges and sentenced him to life in prison.
When federal appeals Judge Robert Vance opened the small brown parcel in the kitchen of his suburban Alabama home on December 16, 1989, it exploded, killing him instantly and seriously injuring his wife. Two days later, virtually the same scenario happened again.
Turns out Erleigh Wiley was a judge and caught Williams, overbilling the county when he was a court-appointed attorney. That was years before Williams was busted for stealing computer parts. Williams was reprimanded, and that apparently was enough to put a target on the new D.A.'s back.
Special Prosecutor Bill Wirskye, brought in to investigate Mark Hasse's murder, quickly gets word that the other Kaufman prosecutors are accounted for and safe -- at least for now. "It was completely unprecedented to have two prosecutors from the same office murdered," said Wirskye.
The sheriff's department gives prosecutors and their families round-the-clock armed protection. Then a bizarre break in the case nobody saw coming. Just 24 hours after Mike McLelland and his wife were gunned down, an anonymous tip comes into the Kaufman Sheriff's Crime Stoppers Hotline.
And you'll remember that the getaway car used in Mark Hasse's murder was described as a brown or silver sedan. But those seemingly contradicting facts don't dissuade investigators. "They thought that he had things stashed somewhere, but they just didn't know where it was," said Kathryn Casey.
Williams is found guilty and gets two years' probation. But since Williams has been convicted of a felony, he automatically loses his justice of the peace position and his law license. In essence, he loses everything, and detectives believe that is his motive for the murders.
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland even went gun shopping for his office to make sure that all of his employees were armed and ready, just in case. A gun owner and enthusiast, McLelland was thought of as a tough guy who could take care of himself, according to his son J.R.
I've cooperated with law enforcement. I certainly wish them the best in bringing justice for this just incredibly egregious act," said Eric Williams.
The first journalist to go inside the prisons to interview Kim and Eric Will iams, Casey conducted extensive interviews over a two-year period with both the convicted killers. During those sessions, Eric Williams denied any involvement in the killings and professed his innocence. In contrast, Kim Williams described in detail the events leading up to the murders and recounted the days of the killings. She claimed to regret her actions and acknowledged that she could have stopped her husband by contacting authorities before any of the victims died. Kim Williams filed for divorce while in prison, and it became final in January 2018.
In 2013, two prosecutors and a prosecutor's wife were murdered in Kaufman County, Texas. The case gained national attention in the United States due to speculation that the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang was responsible, but this was later found to be untrue.
On March 30, 2013, the bodies of Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney Michael McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, 65, were found in their home located in Talty in rural Kaufman County . The murdered couple was discovered by Dallas police officer, C.J. Tomlinson, and his step-father, Skeet Phillips, who were both family friends of the McLellands. The duo entered the home to check on the couple after a family member was unable to contact them; Tomlinson's mother had called him after her phone calls to both McClellands, trying to arrange a time to drop off vegetables for a dinner Mrs. McClelland was preparing for the Phillips family. Tomlinson found the front door closed but unlocked — unusual in a situation in which McClelland had, like his colleagues, been particularly alert to personal safety since the Hasse murder — and noticed shell casings on the entryway floor as he carefully opened the door. Both victims had been shot and killed in what was described as a home invasion -type assault on their property.
On January 31, 2013, Mark Hasse was shot and killed while walking in the 100 block of East Grove Street in Kaufman, Texas. Hasse was the chief assistant district attorney for the Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney's Office. He was walking from his car to the courthouse when a gunman shot him repeatedly, and then fled the area in a waiting car. Hasse, 57, had been an attorney for many years, and had previously served as an assistant district attorney in Dallas County under District Attorney Henry Wade. He had worked for Kaufman County since 2010 as a prosecutor, and was also a licensed police officer commissioned with the district attorney's office.
A large manhunt was conducted by law-enforcement agencies, including the Kaufman Police Department, the Kaufman County Sheriff, several Kaufman County Constable's Offices, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
On April 18, 2013, Eric Lyle Williams and his wife, Kim , were arrested for all three murders. Eric Williams, a former attorney and justice of the peace for Kaufman County, had been convicted of burglary and theft while in office, and had been prosecuted by McLelland and Hasse. Williams was out of jail on probation at the time of the murders.
Cynthia McLelland worked as a clinical psychologist for many years before becoming a psychiatric nurse at Terrell State Hospital. Following the McLelland murders, numerous elected officials in the county were placed under protection by law-enforcement officers at home and at work. Security was visibly increased at the Kaufman County Courthouse.
Naked Justice. Naked Justice refers to episode 28 of the Season 6 of the television series Forensic Files which was broadcast for the first time on November 26, 2001.
In 1999, expectant mother Leann Fletcher is reported dead in her Hazel Park, Michigan home of an accidental gunshot wound to the head. Was the wound self-inflicted, and if it was, why would this young mother with so much to live for kill herself?