Slain Nebraska priest had no connection to alleged killer

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The suspect in the stabbing death of a Catholic priest in eastern Nebraska had no connection to the priest or the small town where the stabbing occurred last week, prosecutors said during a court hearing Thursday.

Kierre Williams, 43, was ordered held without bond while he awaits trial on first-degree murder, burglary and two felony weapons counts in the Sunday killing of the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell in the rectory next door to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Calhoun.

The 65-year-old priest called 911 before dawn Sunday to report that a man had broken into the rectory and was in his kitchen holding a knife. When a deputy arrived at the home minutes later, he said he found Gutgsell lying near the kitchen, bleeding profusely from stab wounds. Gutgsell was rushed to a hospital in nearby Omaha, where he died of his wounds.

NEBRASKA PRIEST STABBED TO DEATH IN CHURCH RECTORY

The murder charge alone carries a possible death penalty, the judge noted.

This booking photo released by the Washington County (Nebraska) Sheriffs Office shows Kierre L. Williams on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023. Williams was arrested in the stabbing death of a Catholic priest in a small Nebraska community who was attacked in a church rectory, authorities said.  (Washington County Sheriffs Office via AP)

Williams, who attended the hearing via video conference wearing a jail-issued orange jumpsuit, appeared taken aback by the mention of the murder charge being a capital punishment crime. He said he was told by his lawyer, Brian Craig of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, that he faced a sentence of life in prison if convicted of the murder charge.

County Attorney Scott VanderSchaaf, the lead prosecutor in the case, did not immediately return phone and email messages Thursday asking whether he intends to seek the death penalty or when that decision will be made.

Gutgsell’s stabbing is the second killing this year in the normally quiet Omaha bedroom community of Fort Calhoun, home to about 1,000 people. Investigators have said both killings happened during break-ins where there was no clear connection between the intruders and the victims.

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In his request to have Williams held without bond, Assistant Washington County Attorney Erik Petersen said Williams has a criminal history in several other states. That includes dozens of cases in Florida dating back to Williams’ teens, a drug possession conviction in Texas and an assault charge earlier this year in Sioux City, Iowa.