Trial starts in Hammond slaying
AMITE — Michael Pennington willingly joined in the 2007 robbery-murder of Hammond businessman Byron Williams, holding the victim down for a beating and helping accomplices set Williams’ house afire with gasoline, prosecutors charged Wednesday.
During opening statements in Pennington’s second-degree murder trial, prosecutors described how Pennington, 25, went to Williams’ house the evening of Aug. 18, 2007, with his stepuncle and stepcousin, Cedrick and Lionel Richardson.
The three men allegedly beat Williams with a crowbar and iron, bound him and set a heavy oak bed on top of him before pouring gasoline on it and setting it on fire, prosecutors told the 21st Judicial District Court jury in Amite. The 21st Judicial District includes Livingston, Tangipahoa and St. Helena parishes.
In the second of two statements given to Tangipahoa Parish sheriff’s detectives in 2007, Pennington admitted being present and “holding Williams down” while Lionel Richardson hit Williams with a crowbar, Assistant District Attorney Leanne Malnar told the court.
“Byron Williams begged for his life,” Malnar said. “Michael Pennington will say that he (Williams) was moaning and breathing for 15 to 20 minutes,” Malnar said, citing Pennington’s second statement to police.
Defense attorney Michael Thiel pointed to Pennington’s first statement to detectives, in which he denied any involvement in the slaying, saying that Pennington had heard Cedrick and Lionel Richardson discuss the slaying, but that he wanted no part of it.
Cedrick Richardson, who had been released from prison just days before Williams was killed, was the mastermind and “motivating factor” behind the killing, Thiel said in his opening statement.
“Byron Williams and Cedrick Richardson had a relationship,” Thiel asserted. “The burning question will be what was the nature of that relationship.”
After Malnar objected to Thiel’s statements about “that relationship,” presiding District Judge Robert Morrison excused the jury from the courtroom.
“Judge, he’s going toward a relationship that cannot be proved,” Malnar said. Thiel’s opening statement amounted to a “character assassination on the victim,” Malnar said.
Robert Morrison sustained the objection and Thiel agreed to refer to a phone conversation between Williams and Cedrick Richardson as “contact,” but not “relationship.”
“Cedrick planned this. He made the decisions about killing,” Thiel told the jury. “Cedrick ordered the fire set.”
Pennington’s fingerprints were not found on either the crowbar or the iron with which Williams was hit, Thiel said.
Cedrick Richardson has pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said. Lionel Richardson is awaiting trial in the case, she said.
The prosecution planned to present video surveillance tapes and credit card receipts that would show the three men used Williams’ credit card to purchase approximately $880 worth of merchandise from stores in Baton Rouge after the slaying, Malnar said.
However, Pennington may have feared for his own life as a result of the killing, Thiel said.
“At some point, he did participate, we are not denying that,” Thiel said. “But his involvement was minimal.”
Pennington originally was booked on a count of first-degree murder of Williams, but the count was reduced to second-degree murder before the trial.
If Pennington is convicted, he faces a sentence of life in prison without possibility of probation, parole or release.
Testimony in the trial is expected to go through Thursday and possibly into Friday.