Jury begins deliberations in Williams capital murder case

Dec. 9—A Morgan County jury is deciding the fate of a Hartselle man who is accused of fatally shooting a Southwest Decatur man in his home during a robbery attempt in February 2019.

Both sides presented closing arguments in Circuit Judge Charles Elliott's courtroom in the capital murder case of Zachary Bernard Williams on Thursday. Williams, 33, is accused of shooting Michael Wayne Irvin Jr., 30, in Irvin's Marion Street Southwest home in the early morning of Feb. 25, 2019.

Williams is a co-defendant with Ulysses Ke'Andre Wilkerson, 22, of Decatur, who is being tried separately.

In his 32-minute closing argument on Thursday afternoon, defense attorney Robert Tuten attacked the in-court testimony of the victim's 8-year-old daughter, saying it was inconsistent with videotaped statements she made shortly after the shooting, when she was 4 years old. In testimony on Tuesday, the girl pointed at Williams and said he shot her dad. Tuten said the state's case was based on "rumor and speculation."

Tuten emphasized to the jury videotaped statements the girl made to Morgan County Child Advocacy Center forensics interviewer Stephanie McGrew, which were played for the jury during McGrew's testimony Thursday morning.

McGrew played three videos totaling 84 minutes. They were taped on Feb. 25, about six hours after the shooting; March 4, 2019; and May 6, 2019. In the second videotaped interview, McGrew showed the girl 13 photos of headshots, including one of Williams, and she was unable to recognize him. In the third interview, the girl failed to point out Williams in two sets of six headshots.

In one of the interviews, the girl said she did not hear a gunshot and "the dude (the intruder) had a hoodie on his head" and she didn't see his face or hear his voice, statements repeated by Tuten to the jury.

"She couldn't pick him out because she didn't see him," Tuten said in his closing argument. "She can't remember."

McGrew testified it is important for children to be interviewed shortly after a tragic event such as the shooting "to accurately display the memories a child has."

While playing with red and yellow Play-Doh, the child told McGrew on Feb. 25, 2019, "I heard two screams. I did not hear a gunshot. My daddy was fighting with somebody (in the hallway). ... Somebody shot him, and Daddy died and the police and hospital came. ... Somebody knocked down the pictures (on the wall). He was Black, not one of Daddy's friends."

She said her dad screamed "like a bear." The other scream she said she heard was from her mother, Leslie Huaracha, who was not home at the time of the shooting and found her longtime boyfriend dead in a pool of blood in the laundry room. In the video, the girl said her mother was asleep under the covers on the couch. Testifying on Monday, Huaracha said she was at a party at a local club until 2:45 a.m. and arrived home about 3 a.m.

"(The girl's) memory is being contaminated and she is repeating what she heard (from adults)," Tuten told the jury of nine men and six women. "Convicting the wrong person in this case is not justice. Not a single piece of evidence relates to Zachary Williams.

"What has the state proven? That Michael Irvin is dead. They have fallen way, way, way short. There's no evidence at all that connects Zachary Williams to this homicide. You have the duty to find this man not guilty."

Assistant District Attorney Paul Matthews told the jurors in his 16 minutes of closing arguments that Williams "wanted money that wasn't his," the shooting death was "an intentional act" and that he and the co-defendant broke into a house with people inside "and the defendant was armed."

According to testimony, Irvin was shot at least seven times.

"An intentional murder took place in the presence of a child of the victim under 14," Matthews said. "This man has been identified as the man who shot Daddy."

After Tuten's closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Garrick Vickery told the jury the little girl was "probably in shock" after somebody kicked in the front door and fought with and then shot and killed her father.

Vickery said Williams' videotaped interrogation proved his guilt when he told Decatur police officers at the time of his arrest in April 2019 that "I kept getting calls" from people telling him that Irvin had been killed. Earlier testimony indicated phone records from Williams' iPhone showed his phone "went dark," or had very little activity, in the days surrounding Irvin's death.

Before the closing arguments, the defense on Thursday afternoon called another expert forensics interviewer, Stacy Ikard of Huntsville, to the stand. She said it was important to interview young children as soon as possible after a tragic event "to minimize external contamination of the memory of the event."

She said young children often believe people they trust, like their parents. "They can lose the ability to remember what they actually saw or experienced. They believe trusted people up to a certain age," Ikard testified.

Decatur Police Detective Sean Mukaddam testified that about $13,000 was found inside the Irvin home. It is not certain how much, if any, cash was taken during the break-in and fatal shooting.

Williams and Wilkerson each face three counts of capital murder, according to the indictment, because the alleged murders were in the presence of a child, during the commission of a burglary and during the commission of a theft. If convicted, their sentences will either be life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

— mike.wetzel@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442. Twitter @DD_Wetzel.