Williams found guilty of first-degree murder in ex-cop’s death

A few nights before Christmas 2010, Michael Williams shot his roommate, Sean “Chris” Putnam, an ex-cop, in the head. After the bullet went through Putnam’s skull, a bungee cord was put around his neck while he gurgled blood. Williams buried Putnam’s body, stripped of its bloody clothes, face down in a shallow grave.

On Friday, a Sedgwick County District Court jury found Williams guilty of first-degree murder, and to Putnam’s brother, Ryan Lauxman, it was justice finally.

The jurors announced their verdict more than five hours after they began deliberating, while an anxious Lauxman waited at the back of the courtroom. Late in the day, the jurors returned to the courtroom to have some testimony read back to them, then went back behind closed doors to continue their deliberations. Their verdict came just minutes before the courthouse closed for the weekend.

“We’re just happy the verdict came out the way it should have,” Lauxman said. “We’ve been waiting quite a while for justice. …

“My brother didn’t deserve what happened to him.”

Williams, who is in his late 30s, was escorted away in handcuffs and will be sentenced April 13.

Earlier Friday, attorneys on both sides argued to the jury over whether Williams was guilty of first-degree murder, a lesser crime or not guilty in the death of Putnam, 41.

Assistant District Attorney Angela Wilson said evidence showed that Williams intentionally shot Putnam in the head at a rental house on South Waco and that a bag was put over Putnam’s head and a bungee cord around his neck to finish the killing.

Wilson summarized for jurors why they should see it as a premeditated killing, not an instantaneous action, and said that part of the premeditation shows in what Williams did after the shooting: He buried the body and sanded, primed and painted the floor where Putnam’s blood spilled. The blood seeped into the wooden grooves, where investigators found DNA matching Putnam.

Based on Williams’ own testimony Thursday, he wanted the jury to believe that he shot Putnam in defending his common-law wife, Deborah Weiss, and that it was a legally justified killing. But the problem with that defense is Weiss never told anyone that Putnam attacked her; instead, she said it surprised her when Williams came out of a back room and shot Putnam in the head, Wilson said.

If Weiss really was a victim, Wilson asked, why would she be surprised, if Williams really was her “knight in shining armor”?

If she had been Putnam’s victim, Wilson asked, why would she go to a friend, chug whiskey and say she felt guilty? Weiss has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Putnam’s death. Weiss and Williams both had a part in strangling Putnam, Wilson said.

Wilson continued: Not long after the shooting, Williams told his best friend that while Putnam was sitting on his bed, Williams walked in and shot him in the head. The friend, who lived next door, said he didn’t relay it to police for a while because he feared Williams.

Williams told another witness, “I’m going to kill that guy,” Wilson said.

About the efforts to hide evidence, Wilson said, “Why on Earth would he go to the trouble he went to dispose of the body” if the shooting was justified? Then return and bury the body deeper? Why would he burn Putnam’s bloody clothes?

Wilson told the all-male jury: “Gentlemen, he thought this over. … He intentionally and with premeditation killed Chris Putnam.”

Then defense attorney Steve Mank got his turn, saying evidence showed that Putnam was angry the night of the shooting because Williams had called police to the home; the police left, saying they couldn’t get involved in a nonphysical dispute between the roommates.

There was testimony that Putnam could go from sleepy to aggressive “at the drop of a hat,” Mank said.

“Chris Putnam had ahold of his (Williams’) wife’s hair” when the shooting occurred, Mank said.

If the shooting was premeditated, Mank asked, why would Williams try to give away his handgun before the shooting?

“We don’t disagree that he killed” Putnam, but it wasn’t first- or second-degree murder, Mank said. He described the shooting as one lucky or unlucky shot, depending on how you view it, and said that if Williams had missed Putnam, “we’d be arguing something else today.”

At the crucial moment, Mank said, it happened like this: Williams saw Putnam grab Weiss, “and then in an instant he fired a shot at Chris. … Mike said the whole thing took like six seconds. Is that premeditated? No.”

Another witness said Williams told him that Putnam was “going after his wife,” Mank said.

As for a bungee cord allegedly being put around Putnam’s neck after the shooting, Mank said, “They didn’t kill him by putting a bungee cord around him.” Putnam was already dying from a .40-caliber bullet passing through his brain, and “that’s what killed him,” Mank said.

As for the hiding of evidence, Mank told the jurors: “He didn’t want to get caught. He told you that. But it wasn’t to … cover up a premeditated killing. It was to clean up.”

Putnam was a former law enforcement officer in Cherokee County and Bel Aire who told Williams he had killed three people, and Putnam had a domestic violence battery conviction, Mank said, adding, “That’s what he was doing to Deb that night — battering her when he (Williams) was acting to protect Deb.”

The prosecution got to have the last word, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Parker told the jury: “That’s right; the defendant didn’t want to get caught then. And he doesn’t want to be caught by you today. …

“There are some essential things you can rely on, things that make sense and things that just don’t make sense. … The only one who has something to gain is this man right here,” Parker said.

She reminded jurors of testimony that Williams had told someone, “I finally got rid of him” after saying for days that he wanted him gone.

She brought up evidence that Williams was mad at Putnam because he thought Putnam was reporting him to police for dealing drugs and “messing” with a teen.

Why didn’t Williams call the police if he thought the shooting was justified? Parker asked.

If it was justified, “You stand up like a man and say, ‘I was defending a woman,’ ” Parker said.

“Hold him fully accountable for what he did,” she told the jurors.

And with their verdict, they did, Putnam’s brother said.

This story was originally published March 9, 2012 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Williams found guilty of first-degree murder in ex-cop’s death."