Volume 63, Number 28
Azle News
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
THE
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Christmas 2014
Wrestlers pin down wins
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Williams sentenced to death for Kaufman murders
City Lights
AHS grad a former local cop by carla noah stutsman For the second time in less than 10 years, members of the Azle High School Class of 1985 have learned that a classmate has been sentenced to death for multiple murders. On Feb. 27, 2006, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Stephen Dale Barbee to death for the Feb. 19, 2005 murder of Lisa Underwood, 34, and her 7-year-old son, Jayden, at their Fort Worth home. Underwood was seven months pregnant at the time of her murder. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, a Kaufman County jury handed down the death penalty to Barbee’s classmate, Eric Lyle Williams, for the murders of Kaufman County District Attorney Michael McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, on March 30, 2013. The same jury had convicted him of the murders the previous week. Barbee remains on death row in a prison unit not far from Huntsville. Williams is slated to join his former classmate after processing through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system, which can take several months. Williams’ now-estranged wife, Kim Williams, testified against him at trial. She, too, is charged with the murders of Mark Hasse and both McLellands. According to reports, Kim Williams also told investigators where they could find the weapon used to gun down Kaufman County’s top prosecutor, Hasse, in January 2013. That weapon was located by a police dive team at the bottom of Lake Tawakoni. Williams has yet to be tried for Much needed rain brought out the colors of the season on Boyd Road. Even with this late in the year precipitation, 2014 remains one of the driest in recorded history. Photo by Carla Noah Stutsman Hasse’s murder.
Speculation is that Kim Williams may be offered a plea deal for life in prison for the role she played in the murders of Hasse and the McLellands. Two other people – Erleigh Wiley, appointed to be Mike McLelland’s successor as Kaufman County DA, and Williams’ former boss, retired state District Judge Glen Ashworth – remained on a “hit list” Williams made, but he was arrested before he could carry out their murders, according to prosecutors. A former Kaufman County justice of the peace, Williams graduated from Texas Christian University in 1989, where he obtained a degree in criminal justice. He also obtained a degree from Texas Wesleyan Law School in 1999. According to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education, Williams has worked as a police officer in the cities of Lakeside, White Settlement, Springtown, and Roanoke, as well as for the Hood County Sheriff’s Department and the Tarrant County Hospital District. His motive in all three murders was revealed to be revenge against those who prosecuted him after learning he was stealing computer monitors from Kaufman County. He was convicted and, as a result, lost his law license. In assessing the jury’s sentence on Williams, District Judge Michael Snipes, who presided over the trial, said: “You made yourself out to be some sort of Charles Bronson ‘Death Wish’ vigilante in this case. I never bought that … You murdered a little old lady, and you would have murdered two other innocent people if you would have had the opportunity.”
Non-profit helps with childhood literacy by mark k. campbell “Literacy is correlated to poverty.” That’s what Lester Meriwether told Azle Rotarians Dec. 18 at the group’s weekly meeting. Meriwether is the executive director of the non-profit Literacy ConneXus, an organization that focuses on getting books into young children’s hands. The Books for the Border and Beyond program began in 2008 in Eagle Pass, part of Fort Worth Western Hills Baptist Church’s outreach program. The Texas border was a target because seven of the 20 poorest counties in America are in Texas, along or near the Rio Grande River. Those seven: Presidio (west of Big Bend National Park); Maverick and Dimmit (adjacent to the river farther southeast) and Zavala (to the east); and Willacy, Hidalgo, and Starr (in the Rio Grande Valley). Meriwether said third grade is a key point in a child’s literacy life – and future. “It’s an indicator of how well a child will do in high school graduation and career success,” he noted. Meriwether added that 80 percent of prison inmates are “fundamentally illiterate” and most of them have learning disabilities. A major component of Literacy ConneXus stems from an idea that Meriwether said came from God. Instead of just supplying low-income families with books – many of which often ended up discarded or lost – why not also provide bookcases? He said that Azle’s Ash Creek Baptist Church assembled 100 such cases a couple of years ago. The small yet vital bookcases can also be put together by the families receiving the books.
Rotarians Rae Sellers (left) and Debbie Bunero (right) help Literacy ConneXus Executive Director Lester Meriwether assemble a bookcase at the Dec. 18 Rotary Club meeting. Photo by Mark K. Campbell “The kids really love helping assemble the bookcases,” Meriwether said. “It empowers them and they will take care of it.” Filling those creations with books is done through “book banks” – collection points spread throughout the state. Reaching children early with books is crucial, he said.
“Our focus is on preschoolers,” Meriwether said, adding that books for older children are also included in deliveries. Among the books each case contains: a children’s Bible, a health literacy book, a baby reader, and 6-12 new and used story books. By keeping books in families, a
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“summer reading gap” – the time children are away from school – can be avoided or deterred. The books and cases give families tools needed to escape generational poverty and improve literacy which, in turn, increases opportunities for enrichment in life. The program makes a lasting im-
pact, he noted – and not just on the Texas border. Literacy ConneXus reaches out to a variety of communities, he said. Locally, a Pelican Bay project is looming, Meriwether said. For more information on Literacy ConneXus, visit www.literacyconnexus.org.
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