Execution Report: Jeffrey D. Williams

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A jury convicted Williams of capital murder in March 2000 and sentenced him to death.

Officer Blando's death prompted an investigation into the why it took 19 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after he summoned for emergency help. As a result of the investigation, two Houston Fire Department ambulance dispatchers, two supervisors, and Fire Department Chief Lester Tyra were suspended.¹

In May 1999, the Texas Legislature passed a law imposing tighter regulations on private motor vehicle title service companies, to deter car theft and insurance fraud. The law, which had already been drafted and passed by the Texas House of Representatives before Blando's death, was named the Troy Blando Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Act.

Soon after arriving on death row, Williams proclaimed his innocence on a web site operated by German opponents of capital punishment in the U.S. "I was wrongly tried, convicted and sentenced to death on false testimony," Williams wrote, maintaining that he shot "in complete self-defense" as "there was no possible way I could have known he was a police officer for the simple fact he was undercover and never disclosed his authority to me." Williams wrote that while he was "in possession of a stolen car," the victim approached him "in plain clothes with no badge in sight" and without verbally identifying himself as a police officer. "So many thoughts ran through my mind in a matter of seconds," Williams wrote, and even when Blando produced handcuffs, "that assured me of nothing because handcuffs can be purchased anywhere these days and also when he grabbed me he immediately began to choke me. As he stated 'Nigger i'm going to kill you' it was then that I was able to push him away and I shot him only once in fear of my life."

Williams wrote that he would have submitted to Officer Blando if he had known he was a police officer. According to Williams, two Houston police officers "got on the stand and testified to [Blando's] badge being on top of the seat of his car when they arrived at the scene and one other police officer admitted this in his police report, but later changed his story in trial."

Williams also noted that Blando may not have died had the ambulance arrived sooner, and he addressed the problems found by the city's investigation into the Houston Fire Department's ambulance dispatch desk.

"I have never avoided guilt for being in a stolen car," Williams wrote, but he did not address how he obtained the car, nor did he address the previous armed robbery that witnesses accused him of.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Williams' conviction and sentence in 2002.

During subsequent rounds of his appeals, Williams raised a claim that he was mentally retarded. His request for a mental retardation hearing was rejected by the TCCA, but approved by a federal district court. The hearing took factors into account such as IQ tests, school work, and testimony from teachers, principals, his superiors in the Navy, family members, and friends. Although Williams' scores on IQ tests were low, the district court found other evidence indicative of normal mental capacity. The court ruled that Williams failed to show that he was mentally retarded, while noting that it was a "close case." The court said that the root of Williams' problems in school was "behavioral, not intellectual."

On appeal, the U.S. Fifth circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Williams was not retarded. Regarding his low test scores, the appeals court noted that on one of them, he scored lower than a person would by making random guesses, and on another, his score was "lower than a score expected from a person hospitalized with advanced dementia." These results showed that Williams was deliberately giving incorrect answers, the court reasoned.

All of Williams' subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

As is always the case when a cop killer is executed, a crowd of police officers made the trip to Huntsville for Williams' execution. Members of the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club came on their bikes, revving their engines to drown out protestors and show their support for Blando. Meanwhile, Houston Police Officers Union President Ray Hunt and a small group of officers witnessed the execution from a viewing room. Another viewing room was provided for friends and family of the prisoner, but no one attended on Williams' behalf.

Williams made a bitter, unrepentant last statement, addressing the witnesses as "you clown police" and accusing them of "getting away with murder all the time."

"You're gonna stop killing innocent kids, murdering young kids," he said. "When I kill one or pop one, y'all want to kill me. God has a plan for everything. You hear - I love everyone that loves me. I ain't got no love for anyone that don't love me."

Williams then told the warden he was ready, and the lethal injection was started. He was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m.

¹According to a city inspector general's report, Houston Fire Department dispatchers David Whittington and Donald Clark, contrary to procedure, did not have the Houston Police Department dispatcher who called them repeat the address and confirm the location. This caused Whittington and Clark to send the ambulance to the wrong location.

Whittington and Clark had 27 and 37 years experience, respectively, with the Houston Fire Department. Whittington was suspended for 10 days after the incident, while Clark was suspended for 15 days.

During the investigation, the inspector general found that about a year earlier, Clark had written a letter to his supervisors, advising them that his hearing problems might prevent him from performing adequately as a dispatcher. He was not reassigned. In addition, the investigation found that Deputy Fire Chief Robert C. Sherrard and District Fire Chief Larry D. Smith withheld evidence of previous problems with Whittington's job performance. Both supervisors were placed on indefinite suspension. Houston Mayor Lee Brown also suspended Fire Chief Lester Tyra for 7 days without pay for exercising poor judgement.

Brown had appointed Tyra as Fire Chief in March 1998. The Troy Blando case was one of a series of at least eight controversies involving the city's ambulance fleet during Tyra's administration. In June 2000, 35-year-old Jose Ruiz died at home after complaining of stomach pains. The two emergency medical technicians who declined to transport him to the hospital were subsequently fired. Around the same time, 20-year fire department veteran Sergio Lopez was fired for failing to provide medical services to a 12-year-old boy who later died of an aortic aneurysm. A relative had brought the boy, Daniel Lopez, to the local fire station vomiting and in pain, but he was told to go home, take a cold bath, and rest. And, in August 2000, another 20-year veteran, Larry A. Wesley, 49, was fired for stopping for doughnuts while transporting a patient to the hospital.

An outside audit of the Houston Fire Department cited staffing deficiencies and "serious issues of managerial leadership" within the department. Tyra resigned as fire chief on 12 October 2000, but stayed in the department as a district chief.

In April 2001, ambulance dispatch supervisors Robert Sherrard, 60, and Larry Smith, 47, were put on trial for tampering with government evidence during the investigation into the Troy Blando case. Testimony and evidence at the trial showed that dispatcher Whittington had been reported in March 1999 for not paying attention to information given to him by Harris County deputy constables calling in requesting an ambulance. A performance evaluation form listing complaints against Whittington was withheld from the city inspector general's office during its investigation into Troy Blando's death.

The supervisors' defense attorney, Gerald Bourque, said that Sherrard had ordered Smith to take Whittington's evaluation out of the file hours before Blando was shot, because it contained false information. It was just a coincidence Blando was shot later the same day, Bourque said.

After prosecutors rested their case against the supervisors, State District Judge George Godwin granted Bourque's motion for a directed verdict of not guilty. Godwin said there was not enough evidence to convince him of criminal wrongdoing. Sherrard and Smith were then reinstated to their jobs. Sherrard remained with the fire department until 2002. He died in 2010 at age 69. Larry Smith retired in 2008.

In his letter from death row, Jeffrey Williams claimed that the ambulance dispatch supervisors were also subjects of civil lawsuits filed by Blando's family. Information to either support or refute this statement was unavailable for this report.

By David Carson. Posted on 16 May 2013.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, Associated Press, Houston Chronicle, Huntsville Item, deathrow-usa.com.