Who killed Kentucky mom: Her boyfriend or the 'psychopath' next door?

Andrew Wolfson | Courier Journal

Over the objections of the victim’s family, prosecutors are plowing ahead with a 38-year-old murder case in which the defendant already was tried twice and served eight years behind bars.

Norman Graham was granted a new trial last year and released from prison by a judge who found the 1980 murder of Janice Kay Williams, whose throat was slashed from ear to ear, may have been committed by another man — “a proven murderer and psychopath who lived next door.”

In affidavits filed in Todd Circuit Court, Williams’ three sisters and niece say they want the commonwealth to dismiss the case.

“My family has been forced to relive the death of our sister repeatedly since 1980, and it has been traumatizing,” Regina Alexander said in a sworn statement.

But Alexander said the family has heard nothing from interim Commonwealth’s Attorney Justin Crocker or Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office, which has appealed the new trial ruling.

On its website, Beshear’s office says it seeks to be “an advocate for the rights of victims” and that “victims come first.”

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In an email, spokesman Terry Sebastian said the appeal was requested by Crocker, who was defeated in the Nov. 6 election. Crocker did not respond to phone calls or emails seeking comment.

Sebastian, however, noted that a successful appeal would “make another trial unnecessary and save the victim’s family further pain.”

Graham’s lawyers at the Department of Public Advocacy's Kentucky Innocence Project say the commonwealth should heed the family’s wishes and dismiss the case.

Another lawyer for Graham, Amy Staples, a Kentucky-based attorney for the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago, said she believes “100 percent” that Graham is innocent and “it would be nice to see justice finally served for him.” Neil Kerr, who will be the next Commonwealth Attorney for the area, said he won't decide what to do with the case until he takes office.

Special Judge Kelly Easton on Oct. 5, 2017, granted a new trial to Graham, who is 71 and was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, in 2014 while in prison.

The case began on June 30, 1980, when Williams, 21, the mother of an 18-month-old girl, was stabbed 27 times and raped in Tiny Town Trailer Park in Guthrie, Kentucky, in a unit rented by Graham, her boyfriend.

Graham, an itinerant iron worker, had only one previous brush with the law, a drunken driving conviction, and friends described him as a laid-back hippie.

In contrast, Roy Wayne Dean Jr. was a troubled teenager who lived next door. Seven weeks after Williams was slain, he tried to choke his mother and was diagnosed as an “active psychotic” who didn’t know right from wrong. Later he killed two women in crimes with haunting similarities to Williams’ slaughter.

But on the night of the Williams murder, his parents whisked him away from the trailer park and police instead arrested Graham, who claimed he was passed out drunk outside a bar.

With little direct evidence tying him to the crime, a jury deadlocked in 1981 and Graham went free. He remained so for 26 years, until a Kentucky State Police detective who had worked the cold case for only three months came up with new evidence.

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It came from the victim’s sister, Alexander, who was 17 at the time of the crime, and testified that Janice told her on the day of the murder that her relationship with Graham was on the rocks. She also testified that her sister was a “neat freak” who bathed as often as three times a day and had put on a new outfit on the afternoon before she was killed.

Clothing was an issue because prosecutors said Graham’s semen was found on the fresh outfit. They argued it was deposited there during the rape and murder. Graham told them he and his girlfriend had sex in the morning.

In his second trial, in 2008, one witness testified Graham’s car was not in the parking lot of a bar where he claimed to have passed out. Another said his car was found at the trailer park covered in dew, even though he claimed he drove 16 miles home, where he discovered the body. A third said Graham appeared to have showered before reporting the murder.

This time, he was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for rape and murder. He remained there until a friend found two witnesses – Roy Wayne Dean’s sister and niece – who told a very different story about what they saw the night of the crime.

Renee Dean, who was 13 in 1980, said she saw her brother near Graham’s trailer, his shirt covered with blood, and that when she asked what he was doing, he shushed her and ran away. Back at their family trailer, she saw that his hand was cut and bloodied, she said.

The Kentucky Innocence Project also found Renee’s cousin, Barbara Keaton, who was playing with Renee and said she saw Roy run away with no shirt on and throw one of his boots into a dumpster.

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Easton, the judge, said if that and other new evidence about Roy Wayne Dean Jr. had been presented to the jury, it would have likely changed the verdict. Easton set aside Graham’s conviction. Dean, 56, denies killing Williams. He is serving a sentence of life without parole for 25 years and the parole board has decided he will never be released.

Appealing the new trial order, Assistant Attorney General Tom Van De Rostyne said in a brief that the testimony of Renee Dean and Barbara Keaton – who both gave numerous statements – was inconsistent and contradictory.

Keaton, for example, said in one statement that Roy Wayne Dean didn’t talk to her, while in another, she said he did, according to the brief.

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Renee Dean said in one statement that she saw her brother at the back door of Graham’s trailer covered in blood. But in another statement, she said she wasn’t sure what happened, the brief says.

Renee Dean also admitted she was paid by Graham’s friend for her testimony and that both she and Keaton despised Dean, who they say sexually and physically abused them as children.

“This hatred of Dean by both women is a potential motive for them to blame Dean" for the murder and undermines their credibility, Van De Rostyne said.

The attorney general’s office asked the court to reinstate Graham’s conviction and sentence, which would send him back to prison.

In an interview, Alexander, the victim’s sister, said she and her family — sisters Judie Blick, Amy Alexander and niece Roxine Mervine — still believe Graham is guilty. But in their affidavits, they say they want to drop the case.

“My family’s only wish is that Norman Graham agrees that he will not contact us in person or by any other method after his case is dismissed,” she said in her statement.

“God will not let anyone get by with what they done wrong,” she said. “I just feel like this has gone along long enough.”

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/andreww