Man accused in slaying of former WWJ anchor Jim Matthews to stand trial

NEW BALTIMORE − Former WWJ overnight anchor Jim Matthews was hit in the head more than two dozen times with a hammer and his throat was slit amid a brutal attack on his family in September inside their Macomb County home, according to court testimony Monday.

Matthews, whose legal last name was Nicolai, died in the attack Sept. 23 in his Chesterfield Township home, where his girlfriend and 5-year-old daughter escaped hours later. The couple’s 10-year-old son was found in a closet, bound and hit in the head with the hammer. He survived.

Arthur Williamson, 55, a friend of Matthews’ girlfriend, on Monday was bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court on seven charges, including murder, after gut-wrenching testimony by the girlfriend, Nichole Guertin, during a preliminary exam in 42-2 District Court in New Baltimore.

'When Jim gets home, I’m gonna kill him'

Guertin recalled Matthews’ horrific last moments. She recounted being bound with zip ties, duct tape and USB cords and being assaulted. She told about the assault on her son and how her daughter, who also had been harmed, got scissors to help free her from the basement before she and the girl fled outside seeking help.

Guertin said she considered Williamson “my best friend at the time” before the attack. Guertin already was experiencing terror when Matthews, 57, got home from work and soon was dead. She testified that Williamson called her in the middle of the night asking to come over and that they smoked a little crack cocaine and she had a little heroin before he cut her neck with a knife and told her “when Jim gets home, I’m gonna kill him.”

Guertin was one of two people who testified for the prosecution, recounting how she could hear her son, Hunter, crying and whimpering and how Williamson, who she knew as Smokey, hit him in the head with the same hammer that was used on Matthews. She testified that Williamson earlier asked her whether she had a hammer because his hubcap was coming off.

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Chesterfield Township Police Officer Darin Johnson testified that he found Guertin and her daughter, Rosie, outside after the pair escaped. He testified that Rosie had a ligature mark on her and had a white cord near her midsection.

Guertin’s testimony was paused for a short time when she said she felt like she was getting sick. She collected herself and continued testifying, sitting just feet away from Williamson, who was at a table with his lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Joan Morgan.

A hammer, a knife, zip ties and duct tape

Guertin said when the night began, she "didn't think anything bad would happen" and Williamson had not been violent toward her or the family before.

During her testimony, however, she recounted that after she asked him to leave to get the children ready for school, things took a turn. Williamson looked "agitated" and asked her to role play, but she didn't want to. She recounted how she was cut on the neck and her hands and ankles were bound with zip ties and how she heard the garage door open when Matthews returned home from work.

Guertin said she heard Matthews say "howdy," then "what the f---" and screamed her name. She testified that she yelled to Matthews that she was tied up and couldn't do anything. She testified that she scooted out on her backside and Matthews was running toward the bedroom when Williamson began attacking him with the hammer and a knife.

She said Matthews fell to the floor, then Williamson "grabbed him by the head and slit his throat." Guertin testified that she heard Matthews say "Oh, God" before his neck was cut.

Testimony: Assailant talks of suicide

She said Williamson brought Hunter up from a basement bedroom. The boy had duct tape on his eyes, wrists and mouth. She testified that Williamson put her son in a closet and began hitting him in the head with the hammer when the boy was crying.

"I asked him to please stop hitting Hunter," Guertin testified, adding that Williamson then hit her once in the head with the hammer.

After that, Guertin testified, she heard Rosie ask, "Is that my dad? Did you kill my dad?"

Guertin testified that Williamson took her and Rosie to the basement, where he put a sock in Guertin's mouth and covered it with duct tape, knocking out a tooth; bound her to a chair, and gave her drugs to sniff.

She testified that Williamson asked her how to "slice his wrists to bleed to death" and how much drugs he needed to overdose. Guertin said when she heard a "death rattle noise" from Williamson, a noise made when overdosing, she asked Rosie to grab scissors from the kitchen. Rosie helped free her and they fled out a garage door.

Guertin testified that she saw a knife by Williamson after she freed herself, thought about grabbing it and stabbing him.

Authorities previously said Williamson, who had a nearly 30-year criminal record that included convictions for assault with intent to commit murder and kidnapping, was found in the basement of the home with self-inflicted wounds and apparently overdosing in what they believed was an attempted suicide.

Guertin said she had known Williamson about two years, that they did drugs together and had an intimate relationship in the past that Matthews was aware of. She said she met Williamson through a friend, who was killed in an apparent drug deal gone bad on New Year's Day 2022 in Port Huron.

Family members look on

Matthews' brother and sister-in-law and Guertin’s sister and brother-in-law, who are caring for the children, sat in the courtroom, emotional at times during Guertin’s testimony.

“It stays in my head every day,” Joe Nicolai said after the hearing about what his brother went through in the home just across the street from his own.

Nicolai said the children are with their aunt in Port Huron. He said Rosie wants to see her mom and dad, but "it's hard to explain."

His wife, Jennifer, said Hunter is in school virtually and "the teacher is seeing that he's making good progress." Joe Nicolai said Hunter was told his father was cremated and they are looking for necklace urns "so he can keep him close to him."

Joe Nicolai, who lost his mother to COVID-19 just nine months before his brother died, said he wants to know the motive for his brother's death.

But he doesn't think he'll get the answer.

Assistant Prosecutor Steve Fox, chief of the office’s major crimes unit, said we’re “thoroughly confident in the case,” which remains under investigation and has the potential for additional charges.

District Judge William Hackel III bound Williamson over on all seven charges and didn’t recommend any bond “that’s for sure.”

Williamson is set for arraignment and pretrial in the circuit court March 13.

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Man changed in former WWJ anchor slaying to stand trial