LEBANON, Pa. — A man convicted of participating in a shooting that killed one man and severely injured another in 2014 will receive a new trial after a federal judge overturned his conviction based on "a procedural technicality," Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said Thursday in a press release.
Eddie Williams Jr. was convicted of first-degree homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, attempted homicide, robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and multiple related offenses by a jury in October 2015, Graf said. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
However, a federal court ruled this week that a procedural decision made during his trial was "fatally prejudicial" to Williams' conviction, Graf said. The court overturned Williams' conviction and ordered a new trial.
Graf said the case will be returned to Lebanon County to be retried in the Court of Common Pleas.
"In 2014, two men were brutally attacked and executed in their own home," Graf said. "Guns were placed against their skulls, triggers pulled, bullets fired. This shooting was one of the most brutal and nonsensical murders we've seen come through our community.
"In 2014, our office fought for the conviction of each person responsible. Ten years later, we will fight for that conviction again."
According to Graf, during Williams' 2015 trial, his defense team argued that Williams was innocent because his cousin -- one of three accused co-conspirators in the case -- had pleaded guilty a few months earlier. David Arnold, who was Lebanon County's District Attorney at the time, asked the judge to explain the cousin's plea. The judge explained the cousin pleaded guilty as a co-conspirator and accomplice, but that did not eliminate Williams as the guilty party for murder.
The federal court determined the trial judge's actions were "fatally prejudicial" to Williams' conviction and ordered a retrail.
In March 2014, Williams, his cousin, and his girlfriend conspired to rob one of Williams' friends, a local drug dealer. The trio went to the victim's home in the Fox Ridge Apartment complex in the early morning hours of March 10, 2014. After entering the home, they shot and killed one victim and shot and severely wounded another.
They then led police on a 100-mph vehicle chase through portions of Lebanon County before Williams fled from the vehicle and escaped. He was arrested in October 2014 in Philadelphia.
The surviving victim, who sustained a gunshot wound to the head, testified at trial and identified Williams as the person who shot him. Investigators also found Williams' DNA on the murder weapon. Evidence presented at trail showed that Williams was jealous of his friend's success as a drug dealer and plotted the robbery and shooting as revenge.
