Scott Wilson WILLIAMS
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape - Mutilation - Dismemberment
Number of victims: 3
Date of murders: 1997 / 2004 / 2006
Date of arrest: March 9, 2006
Date of birth: 1963
Victims profile: Sharon House Pressley / Christina Outz Parker / Sharon Tucker Stone
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Union County, North Carolina, USA
Status: Sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without parole on July 17, 2008
Union man gets life in 3 killings
Scott Williams enters a plea, saying prosecutors have the evidence to convict him.
By Mike Torralba - Charlotte.com
Sat, Jul. 19, 2008
In a plea bargain with prosecutors Friday, serial killer Scott Wilson Williams was sentenced to life without parole in the shootings and dismemberment of three Charlotte-area women between 1997 and 2006.
Williams entered an Alford plea in Union County Superior Court. That means he acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of three counts of first-degree murder in the three women's deaths.
Union County prosecutors earlier sought the death penalty against the former state road crew worker from northern Union County.
But District Attorney John Snyder said Friday he offered the plea deal “in light of the nature of the case, the sensitivity of the victims and the uncertainty of capital punishment.”
The evidence against Williams included DNA and ballistics from weapons found on his property, detectives said. Investigators also read statements by Williams and two more victims who survived, which show the 44-year-old picking up women, torturing and killing them.
They also portrayed Williams as a fetishist and predator who was insecure in his sexuality and quick to anger.
Williams' attorney, Frank Wells of Asheboro, said the defense “did not have any grounds on which to dispute the statements” read in court.
“It wasn't a close call,” Wells said. “The evidence was overwhelming.”
Superior Court Judge Richard Boner handed Williams three consecutive life sentences. They involved the deaths of Sharon House Pressley in 1997, Christina Outz Parker in 2004 and Sharon Tucker Stone in 2006. Their bodies – mutilated in similar but increasingly gruesome ways – were found off rural roads in Union County and Chesterfield County, S.C.
Williams also entered Alford pleas to first-degree charges of kidnapping, rape and sexual offense against two more women in 1995 and 2000. Williams let both women go.
The serial murder case has been one of the most gruesome in the Charlotte area in recent years. But its resolution Friday was low key. Only about a third of seats in a Union County courtroom were filled. Attending were fewer than two dozen family and friends of the victims and Williams.
Williams walked in a side entrance, tieless and wearing a gray suit. Shackled at the wrists, he answered Judge Boner's questions softly, saying “Yes” and “No” and showing no emotion.
His buzzed hair had grayed since his arrest in March 2006. He sported the same thick, dark mustache and a pair of wire-frame glasses.
As investigators read evidence against him, the courtroom was quiet.
According to Union County Sheriff's Lt. David Linto, one survivor told investigators that Williams removed her shoelaces, wrapped them around her breasts and tightened them until her breasts turned blue.
“He said, ‘I was once your worst nightmare; now I'm your guardian angel. If anyone (messes) with you, I will kill them,'” the woman told detectives.
According to testimony, Williams also told investigators that he planned to cannibalize one woman's remains, but was turned off by the smell of cooked flesh.
Union County Sheriff's Sgt. Brian Helms testified that when Williams was confronted by detectives at his home in northern Union County in early March 2006, he yielded.
“He was sitting on the couch. He shrugged, placed his head in his hands and said, ‘I didn't mean to hurt those girls,'” Helms told the court.
Near the two-hour hearing's end, family members of victims had a chance to speak.
“At first I was shocked about him not receiving the death penalty. But I guess God has a plan …” wrote Heather Brown, daughter of Sharon Stone, in a statement read to the court by her brother, Scott Hinson.
“My mom was always around smiling,” Brown wrote. “She called every holiday and for my birthday. She was not a woman of the streets. She worked as hard as she could at restaurants, until she met Scott Williams.”
As Hinson and other family of the victims entered statements into the court record, Williams' gaze tilted toward his shackled hands, and he rocked slightly in his chair.
He watched as the earliest known victim, a survivor, made her statement.
The woman, now in her 40s, held up a photograph of herself taken shortly before her 1995 abduction from the parking lot of a 24-hour supermarket and her subsequent rape. It showed a smiling woman with curly brown hair. She described herself as “very vivacious and full of life.” She has since married and has “a beautiful child.” But she spoke in a slow, soft monotone.
“At least I was lucky to survive,” she said. “But mentally and emotionally, I constantly look over my shoulder.”
Defense attorneys and prosecutors had discussed a plea arrangement for “a long time,” said Jonathan Megerian, Williams' co-counsel. But it wasn't until Thursday that Williams gave the final OK, Megerian said.
The court appointed Megerian and Wells, both of Asheboro, in January. Williams' previous attorneys withdrew citing a shortage of support staff and a strained relationship with their client.
Following Williams' arrest, Judge Boner sealed documents that contained many details of the case. Several media organizations, including the Observer, sought to obtain the documents after Williams' March 2006 arrest.
According to records that were made public, investigators seized assorted whips, chains, handcuffs, knives and handguns from Williams' home.
Scott Wilson Williams Makes His Deal
July 18th, 2008
Scott Wilson Williams, who was charged in 2006 with the murders of three women in North and South Carolina entered an Alford plea, and received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. An Alford plea means that Williams admits that prosecutors have enough evidence to obtain a conviction, were the case to go to trial.
Williams was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the deaths of Sharon Tucker Stone, Christina “Christy” Parker, and Sharon House Pressley. Ballistic tests on the bullets found in the victims were tested and found to match firearms found in his home.
Arrest Made in Carolina Murders Case
March 9th, 2006
An arrest has been made as a result of the investigation into three murders committed in Union and Chesterfield counties in the Carolinas.
Scott Wilson Williams, a 42-year-old NC Department of Transportation worker has been charged in the crimes.
Williams was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the deaths of Sharon Tucker Stone, Christina “Christy” Parker, and Sharon House Pressley. Stone’s body was found in a Chesterfield County, S.C. field last month, Parker’s in 2004, and Pressley’s in 1997. Parker and Pressley’s bodies were found in the same area of northern Union County, about 10 miles from Williams’s home.
He was also charged with one count of attempted first degree murder and one count of first degree sex offense due to an attack on an unidentified women who was attacked by Williams but managed to escape.
Police said Williams lived in Monroe and did not have a previous criminal record.
“Williams is cooperating with investigators and provided a great deal of information,” Cathey said. ” He lived a quiet life. Worked a job, but he was not as quiet as everyone suspected,” Cathey said.
Cathey was hesitant to describe the suspect as a “serial killer.” He said the slayings weren’t his original intent but developed from other actions. He would not elaborate. During the press conference police also did not elaborate on physical evidence recovered in their investigation.
Scott Williams at least on the surface would seem to fit the profile for an organized serial killer.
He has a job, though not a great one. He lives a normal life, stepping out of it during the times when his fantasies take over, leading him to commit these crimes.
His position at the Department of Transportation would put him in a vehicle that would not be noticed easily, since they are seen driving all across the state. It would also not appear out of place parked on a dirt road, by the highway or just about anywhere. This type of job also allows him to travel within his area a good deal, something that organized killers tend to do more often than others.
With no physical evidence released, we are left to wonder if Williams has confessed, or if they were able through interviews to get him to release enough information to convince them he is their prime suspect.
Reports: Killings grew in severity
15 march 2006
Mutilations to the bodies of three women authorities say were killed by the same person during a nine-year span were more severe each time, autopsies and investigators' statements show.
Criminal justice experts say that fits the pattern of a serial killer who got bolder over time, and demonstrated efforts to satisfy a compulsion caused by an earlier trauma.
Authorities on Thursday charged Scott Wilson Williams of Clontz Long Road in northern Union County with three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, one count of first-degree forcible sex offense and four counts of kidnapping.
He is accused of killing Sharon House Pressley, Christina Parker and Sharon Stone between 1997 and February of this year. He attacked another woman in 2000 but she escaped, authorities said.
The Union County Sheriff's Office has released few details about the evidence investigators used to link Williams to the crimes, or the conditions of the bodies.
Sheriff Eddie Cathey, however, has avoided describing the suspect as a "serial killer." He said the victims "weren't taken for the purpose of murder. They were taken and then murder was the result." He would not elaborate beyond that.
On Monday a judge sealed the search warrant that lists what investigators discovered last week when they combed though Williams' house.
The Observer on Tuesday obtained autopsies for Pressley, whose body was found about 10 miles from Williams' house in 1997, and Parker, who was found near the same location in 2004.
All three women were shot to death before they were mutilated, autopsies and authorities said.
The first woman was sexually mutilated and the second victim's mutilations, sexual and nonsexual, were more numerous, autopsies show. In the third instance, victim Stone was decapitated and dismembered, authorities said.
Chesterfield County (S.C.) Coroner Donnie Baker did not respond to a request for a copy of Stone's autopsy. Her body was found in a field there.
Authorities have said all three women lived a "high-risk lifestyle" and that Williams was part of it.
Williams in December 1993 sued a Union County hairdresser for $80,000, saying the man sexually abused him over a 20-year period that began when Williams was 8. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and details were not released. The man Williams sued denied the allegations.
Paul Friday, a UNC Charlotte criminology professor, said serial killers typically have "revenge fantasies" caused by a "significant shock in their life."
He said the fantasies get more violent over time and "at some point the opportunity and the fantasy come together" and the killing occurs.
Friday and Lawson Bernstein, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who has studied death row inmates, said serial killers need to satisfy a desire that continues to grow.
"The first mutilation satisfies them, but they have to escalate that because they need more satisfaction, and then more and more," Friday said.
Bernstein, a neuropsychiatrist, said the mutilation's severity can progress because the killer "needs more mayhem to achieve psychological satisfaction."
Williams, held without bond, was transferred Friday to Central Prison in Raleigh for added security. His first court appearance is scheduled for April 5.
Search Warrant For Accused Serial Killer's Home
20 april 2006
Union Co., NC -- Union County sheriff's investigators detailed everything they took from Williams' home in the days following his arrest on March 9. They found a variety of weapons, including knives and guns. They also took handcuffs, hair samples and computer equipment. Detectives also took DNA evidence from Williams himself by collecting blood, hair and saliva samples.
Our newspaper partner, the Monroe Enquirer Journal, confirmed the district attorney does plan to seek the death penalty. Police say Williams killed Sharon Stone, Sharon Pressley and Christina Parker. Police say all three women led risky lifestyles. The murders date back to 1997. So far no trial date for Williams has been set.
