Was a Quadriplegic's Death Murder or Suicide? "If Something Happens to Me ..."

A frantic wife called 911 around 3 p.m. in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania on March 14, 2019 to say her husband had shot himself in the head. When state police arrived, they found 49-year-old Ronald Williams dead in bed — with a gun in his right hand. Kimberly Williams, 46, said she’d heard the shot and rushed into the bedroom.

“She said he had a stroke about six years prior and hasn’t been able to get out of bed or really do anything that he used to be able to do. So, there were concerns that mentally he just didn’t want to go on,” explained Ryan Sayers, Clearfield County District Attorney, on Snapped, airing Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen. “Everything at that point lined up to point to a suicide.”

But not all of Ron’s family was convinced he took his own life.

“To me, the fact that he hung in there for years without doing [suicide], I just don’t see him doing that. He doesn’t quit like that,” said Miranda Williams, Ron and Kim’s daughter, on Snapped.

Keep reading to find out why police said Kimberly Williams may have been motivated to stage her husband’s death as a suicide.

Ron and Kim Williams met soon after he enlisted in the Army after high school. They married in February 1992, and had two daughters together, Angel and Miranda.

“We were a very close-knit family and that’s how my parents preferred it … we would have family dinner on Sundays,” Miranda Williams said.

But that all came crashing down after Ron suffered a stroke in 2013.

“He was left a quadriplegic pretty much after the stroke. So, he didn’t have any use of both upper and lower extremities,” said Dr. Eric Raydo, Ron’s physical therapist, on Snapped.

It was difficult on both Ron and Kim and their marriage.

“Ron was dependent on a wheelchair,” said Nicole Twoey-Cieslewicz, Ron’s occupational therapist, on Snapped. “He relied on his wife to get in and out of bed. Also to complete his bathing and dressing. And cooking. Any functional task Ron relied on somebody to complete for him.”

After Ron suffered additional strokes, his family learned they were caused by an error in his care at the hospital.

“There’s a medication that the literature says should have been administered — could have prevented the second stroke, and the second stroke is what rendered him most disabled. So, they sued,” said defense attorney Steven Trialonas on Snapped.

The Williams family received $1.4 million in a hospital settlement and put it in a trust for Ron’s treatment.

Ron Williams. Photo: Oxygen

After Ron’s death, state police considered the case closed, until they received a call from the man who managed Ron’s trust fund.

“The trust officer said, ‘Hey, I received this email, want to bring it to your attention,’” Sayers said. “He had received an email from Mr. Williams earlier in the day. And the email said, in essence, ‘If something happens to me, have an autopsy done.’ He doesn’t know what, but he believes something is amiss. It changed what was a presumed suicide into a murder investigation.”

The trust officer also told police there’d been a recent change to the trust, giving all of the trust fund to Kim if Ron died. But if they were to divorce, Kim would receive none of the trust fund proceeds.

Kim opposed an autopsy being performed on Ron, but state police ordered it anyway.

“It was very suspicious that she would contact [the trust officer] to tell him that, ‘No, we don’t need an autopsy,’” Jeff Corcino, reporter for The Progress, said on Snapped. “Usually, people do not oppose an autopsy being done.”

When police questioned Kim, she denied killing her husband, and insisted he’d battled depression even before his strokes. Her daughters also confirmed their father was depressed. Kim agreed to let police test her hands and clothes for gunshot residue.

“She said that Mr. Williams had talked about taking his own life, that he wasn’t happy,” Sayers said. “And she said that he had actually been 302-ed, involuntarily committed, at one point because of those statements.”

As police questioned Ron Williams’ daughters, they learned that Kim Williams was having an affair.

“One of the conversations my dad had with me, he was saying about kicking my mother out, and that he wasn’t going to be made into a cuck in his own house,” Miranda Williams said.

She told police her mother was romantically involved with Terry Carter, Kim’s friend from high school.

“I think for anyone to betray the person they’ve been married to for 25 years like that isn’t really excusable,” Miranda Williams said. “And then you add into the equation that the man can’t walk and depends on you to literally go to the bathroom. And then you have the audacity to throw it in his face that you’re not satisfied with him. I can’t really wrap my head around it.”

Terry Carter admitted to the affair, and said it began six months before Ron’s death.

“As time went on, however, Kimberly became less discreet,” said criminologist Dr. Casey Jordan on Snapped. “She would actually bring her boyfriend, Terry, to the house, with Ron next door, in a separate bedroom.”

Carter also admitted to police that Kim had tampered with Ron’s medications to knock him out so they could spend time together. This added up with what Ron’s therapists reported to police.

“My last visit there, he was a little out of it, not acting correctly, in my opinion,” Twoey-Cieslewicz said. “Ron was kind of sleepy, tired, acting strange that evening, and our session was also cut short.”

Police believed the affair only added to Kim Williams’ motive, especially after Miranda Williams said her dad had threatened to divorce her mom.

“She had a motive that the only thing between her and the money and her lover was her husband,” Sayers said.

Prosecutors argue Kimberly Williams killed her husband

Kimberly Williams. Photo: Oxygen

Ron’s therapists questioned if he was physically able to commit suicide.

“Ron was not physically capable of doing that … he was very weak the visit prior to when I had seen him. He would not have had the grip strength to pull the trigger,” Twoey-Cieslewicz said.

Prosecutors argued the results of Ron’s autopsy confirmed the theory he was killed. The coroner and ballistics experts believed the firearm had to have been fired from at least 48 inches from Ron’s head.

“He concluded that there was no way that he shot himself in the head. It was a homicide,” Corcino said.

The results of Kim’s gunshot residue testing also pointed towards her guilt.

“The tests showed that there was the presence of gunshot residue on both Mrs. Williams’ left hand as well as on her clothing,” Sayers said.

She was arrested in October 2019. In June 2021, her trial began. Kim’s defense lawyers argued not all the evidence was properly processed by police, as they believed the crime scene initially to be a suicide. They also argued the gun used in the death had an easy trigger, and Ron would have been able to kill himself. He also had the opportunity, as the gun was always left on table by the bed, according to Kim’s lawyers.

A jury found Kim Williams not guilty of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, and aggravated assault. She was instead found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to time served, three years probation, and a $5,000 fine.

“The argument was made that they came to that determination because she created the condition for this to occur by giving him a firearm knowing his mental issues,” Sayers said.

Kim Williams received all the money from the trust fund. She plans to marry Terry Carter.

“Me and my mother don’t talk about what happened anymore,” Miranda Williams said. “We don’t even bring it up or hint at it or anything like that because passing judgement either way will never bring him back.”

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