Texas jury considers death penalty in revenge plot killing

By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - A Texas jury that convicted a former justice of the peace of murdering a suburban Dallas prosecutor's wife in a revenge plot began deliberations on Tuesday in the penalty phase of the trial, in which it could sentence him to death. Eric Williams, 47, was convicted on Dec. 4 of murdering Cynthia McLelland in 2013. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, while attorneys for Williams asked jurors to invoke "Jesus' mercy" by sparing him from the death chamber and sentence him to life in prison instead. "We believe all life is sacred, even the life of a convicted capital murderer," defense attorney John Wright said. Williams has also been charged with murdering District Attorney Mike McLelland, who was Cynthia McLelland's husband, and Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse. Prosecutors said he wanted to get back at them for obtaining a theft conviction that cost him his job and law license. "He will always be a danger to people that cross him, to people that stand up to him like Mike McLelland and Mark Hasse," prosecutor Bill Wirskye said. Prosecutors have indicated they could bring Williams to trial for the other two deaths if the current case does not result in a capital punishment decision. Williams' estranged wife, Kim, who is also charged with capital murder and will be tried separately, told jurors on Tuesday that she was guilty of the murders because she accompanied him but that her husband pulled the trigger. "I believed in Eric and everything he told me," she said. "His anger was my anger." She is now trying to divorce him. Hasse was gunned down outside the Kaufman County Courthouse on Jan. 31, 2013, and the McLellands were fatally shot inside their home on March 30, 2013. After his 2012 theft conviction, Eric Williams began forming a mental hit list of people involved in his prosecution, Kim Williams said. She added that Cynthia McLelland was not on that list but that her husband later told her he considered McLelland "collateral damage." "He told me he had to shoot her an extra time because she was still moaning," Williams said. A death penalty verdict must be unanimous. If that decision is not reached, Eric Williams faces life in prison. (Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Peter Cooney)