FORT WORTH -- Nearly 25 years after Sandra Martin was found bound and fatally shot inside her southwest Fort Worth home, a 66-year-old Dallas real estate agent is headed to prison for the crime.
Jurors in state District Judge Scott Wisch's court deliberated about two hours Tuesday before finding Jay Thayer Williams guilty of capital murder.He was accused of fatally shooting Sandra Martin during a sexual assault on Sept. 22, 1986, as her two young children watched television in another room.Because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, Williams was automatically sentenced to life in prison.After the verdict was announced, Williams showed no reaction, but then shook his head in disbelief after he took his seat at the defense tableA short time later, David Martin, husband of the slain woman, briefly addressed Williams in a victim impact statement."Jay Thayer Williams, you have caused my family ... to live forever with unimaginable pain and anguish," Martin said. "I forgive you ... for killing my wife. My prayer is for God's justice for you. I pray for your family, too, that they eventually heal for the choices you have made in your life. That is all."During the nearly monthlong trial, prosecutors Kevin Rousseau and Tamla Ray maintained that Williams posed as a prospective buyer to gain entry to the home in the 6800 block of Amber Drive, which the Martins had put up for sale. Once inside, they contended, Williams used duct tape to cover Martin's eyes and mouth and bind her wrists and ankles before shooting her in the bridge of her nose, apparently through a pillow, and strangling her.Not until 2009 was Williams linked to fingerprints on the duct tape wrapped around Martin's body.During his hourlong closing argument Tuesday, attorney Jim Shaw, who defended Williams with Jim Renforth and Lindsay Gilland, suggested that prosecutors had the wrong man -- and that Martin's husband was the killer."I'm not going to apologize for defending my client zealously, within the bounds of the law," Shaw said. "I'm going to tell you this: He is not guilty of this offense."Shaw told the jury that there was more evidence against Martin's husband than his client, pointing out that he had numerous affairs during their marriage, including one with the wife of a police officer, and that he started selling lingerie and hired a "sassy little nanny" to watch his kids after his wife's death."I'm just pointing out the evidence, folks," Shaw told the jury. "I'm not here to convict Mr. Martin, but if I was a prosecutor, I think I could. I think I could convict him."Shaw also tried to discredit the testimony of Martin's son, who was 5 when his mother was killed and gave police a description of the man who came to the house that day. Shaw also suggested that police botched the case and that prosecutors stretched DNA test results. And Shaw pounced on the fact that a Fort Worth crime lab fingerprint examiner made a clerical error when marking fingerprints."When he botched up this fingerprint, the mistake could be that an innocent man goes to the penitentiary for the rest of his life," Shaw said. "If you have a reasonable doubt, you exercise that reasonable doubt. He came in with a presumption of innocence and he's going to leave with a finding of 'not guilty.'"DNA evidenceBut during his summation to the jury, prosecutor Rousseau said that he didn't have enough time to clear up all the "misrepresentations and mistakes" by Shaw and that "smoke can obscure the truth.""They have taken potshots that are way beyond the pale," Rousseau said.Rousseau told the jury that he stood by his assertion, based on forensic experts' findings, that Williams' DNA was found on Sandra Martin's sweater. And, he said, the fingerprint examiner made a clerical mistake that didn't "amount to much.""At the end of the day, when all the smoke is cleared and settled, it is still Jay Thayer Williams' fingerprint on this card," Rousseau said. "His fingerprints are on the duct tape stuck on Sandra Martin's head. His fingerprints are on the duct tape stuck to Sandra Martin's ankle -- no one else's, but his."Rousseau told the jury that David Martin might not have been a good husband when he was 29 but that he was not a killer."He endured suspicion for years," Rousseau said. "Some people -- people who don't know about the facts of the case -- thought badly of David Martin. He acknowledged to police he had been an unfaithful husband and had an affair with the wife of a police officer. His sins were dragged out into the sun in full view, but David Martin didn't kill anyone."Rousseau urged the jury to find Williams guilty of capital murder and give justice to a family that's been waiting for it for more than two decades."He not only took her life, but her children's mother -- and any chance David Martin might have had to atone," Rousseau said. "For 25 years, [Williams] has been breathing stolen air. We have done all that we can. I brought you the truth in painstaking fashion, but it's all before you now."Melody McDonald,817-390-7386Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
