The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday set an execution date for Marcellus Williams, the man who fatally stabbed former Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle at her home in University City in 1998.

Marcellus Williams, 45, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre on Jan. 28.

Williams' execution would be the first in 2015, following a record year in which Missouri carried out 10 executions.

Williams killed Gayle, 42, at her home in the gated Ames Place neighborhood of University City on Aug. 11, 1998. Williams was burglarizing the home when Gayle, who had been taking a shower, surprised him. He stabbed her repeatedly while she fought for her life.

After a jury convicted Williams at a trial in 2001, St. Louis County Circuit Judge Emmett M. O'Brien sentenced Williams to death. The judge also ordered Williams to serve consecutive terms of life in prison for robbery, 30 years for burglary and 30 years each for two weapons violations.

Before sentencing, Williams told the judge he lacked jurisdiction — that only God had that authority.

Gayle was a Post-Dispatch reporter from 1981-92. She left the paper to do volunteer social work with children and the poor.