Court holds evidentiary hearing for Missouri death row inmate claiming innocence before execution date

A county prosecutor in St. Louis, Missouri, presented DNA evidence Wednesday alleging that a death row inmate convicted of first-degree murder is innocent in a case that has drawn opposition from the state attorney general.

Marcellus Williams, 55, who has maintained his innocence, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, according to court documents. He was charged in 1999 and found guilty in 2001.

The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, headed by Wesley Bell, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday that the lead prosecutor and investigator who initially tried the case two decades ago handled the knife used to kill Gayle without gloves and their DNA was found on the evidence.

"DNA from two members of the trial team were found on the murder weapon in testing we did for this hearing," Bell's office told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. "In open court today, a DNA expert testified that their improper handling of the weapon could have eliminated other DNA evidence. Williams' DNA was never recovered from the knife."

Bell’s office did not address whether they are asking the judge to invalidate the knife as evidence because of improper handling.

Williams was set to enter an Alford plea after a circuit court judge, and Bell agreed to it last week. An Alford plea would allow him to accept the consequences of a guilty plea but would not require him to admit specific wrongdoing to get his sentence reduced to life in prison without parole, according to the county prosecutor's office.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued that the move to vacate Williams' death sentence should not have been allowed, saying in a statement that the "defense created a false narrative of innocence in order to get a convicted murderer off of death row and fulfill their political ends."

Wednesday's hearing came after the Missouri State Supreme Court ruled last Thursday in favor of a request from Bailey for the circuit court to first hold an evidentiary proceeding before considering vacating the death sentence.

"It is in the interest of every Missourian that the rule of law is fought for and upheld – every time, without fail," according to a statement from Bailey last Thursday. "I am glad the Missouri Supreme Court recognized that. We look forward to putting on evidence in a hearing like we were prepared to do yesterday [when the circuit judge agreed to vacate Williams' death sentence]."

The State Attorney General's Office did not respond to ABC News' request for further comments after the evidentiary hearing.

The county prosecutor's office submitted the 63-page motion on Jan. 26 to vacate Williams’ conviction.

"Despite the fact that no reliable evidence has ever connected Mr. Williams to the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle," The Innocence Project, who is representing Williams, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. "Attorney General Andrew Bailey has vigorously fought to prevent the court from vacating Mr. Williams’ conviction and to execute him on September 24."

In the summer of 2024, Bailey has litigated against three wrongful-conviction claims opposing local prosecutors and judges, according to The New York Times, including the Christopher Dunn case, in which the state attorney general did not accept the recanting of testimonies of two witnesses who previously tied Dunn to the murder of a teenager in 1990. Dunn was released from prison after Bailey appealed the ruling of a circuit court judge who vacated Dunn’s conviction.

Williams was convicted on June 15, 2001, of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, armed criminal action and robbery connected to events at Gayle’s home in suburban St. Louis, according to court documents.

Gayle was found murdered with more than 43 stab wounds in her home on Aug. 11, 1998, according to the county prosecutor's motion. The kitchen knife used in the killing was left lodged in Gayle’s body, according to court documents. Blood, hair, fingerprints and shoe prints believed to belong to the perpetrator were found around the home. Gayle’s purse and her husband’s laptop were declared missing after the attack, according to county prosecutor's motion.

"None of this physical evidence tied Mr. Williams to Ms. Gayle’s murder," according to the motion filed by Bell’s office. "Mr. Williams was excluded as the source of the footprints, Mr. Williams was excluded by microscopy as the source of the hairs found near Ms. Gayle’s body … and Mr. Williams was not found to be the source of the fingerprints."

About a year after Gayle’s death, Henry Cole, a man who had been recently released from jail, told authorities that he had been Williams’ cellmate and heard him admit to the murder, according to court documents.

In November 1999, Laura Asaro, Williams’ girlfriend at the time, told police that Williams confessed to her that he killed Gayle, according to Bell’s motion. The prosecution’s case was largely dependent on these two witness accounts, the motion said.

In court documents, Bell’s office claimed there were significant issues with the credibility of Cole and Asaro’s accounts, which they said were inconsistent over time and contained testimony that didn’t line up with physical evidence. Bell’s office also alleged that both witnesses had incentives to testify, including a possible cash reward to find Gayle's killer and, in Asaro's case, an offer of help from police with her outstanding warrants.

Williams pawned the laptop stolen from Gayle’s home, but the motion alleges the buyer of the computer told investigators that Williams explained to him that Asaro had given him the laptop to sell for her. The jury who convicted Williams was not allowed to hear testimony that Williams said he received the laptop from Asaro because the testimony would have been hearsay. Williams was convicted in June 2001 and sentenced to death.

In 2017, when Williams was hours away from execution, then-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens granted him a reprieve so a panel could evaluate his conviction.

Last year, Gov. Mike Parson disbanded the panel, according to court documents. A day after the governor dissolved the panel, Bailey asked the State Supreme Court to schedule an execution date. Parson said that he is open to discussing clemency for Williams, according to a statement on Monday obtained by ABC News.

"One of the defense’s own experts previously testified he could not rule out the possibility that Williams’ DNA was also on the knife. He could only testify to the fact that enough actors had handled the knife throughout the legal process that others’ DNA was present," read a statement from Bailey last week.

The county prosecuting attorney's office said the state's claim that one of their expert witnesses could not rule out Williams's DNA on the weapon was insignificant.

"The AG (attorney general) is arguing about a motion that was not taken up by the court today and has no bearing on the matter," read the statement from Bell's office.

The circuit court has until Sept. 13 to make a ruling on Williams' case after the evidentiary hearing, according to court documents.

ABC News' Davi Merchan and Deena Zaru contributed to this report.