ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- The man convicted of killing pop singer Walter Scott in 1983 Tuesday faced life in prison without the possibility of probation or parole for 70 years.
James Williams Sr., 53, of St. Charles County was sentenced by Circuit Judge E. Richard Webber, who presided over Williams' murder trial.
A jury found Williams guilty of two counts of capital murder in the killings of his first wife, Sharon Williams, and of Scott. Webber Monday followed the jury's sentencing recommendation on both counts.
The death of Sharon Williams in October 1983 initially was ruled by authorities to be accidental. Scott, whose real name was Walter Notheis Jr., disappeared in December 1983. He sang on the 1960s hit, 'The Cheater,' by Bob Kuban and the In-Men.
Scott's wife, JoAnn, divorced him after his disappearance and later married Williams. In 1987, Scott's body was found in a cistern behind a house that Williams had owned at the time of the disappearance. The singer had been shot in the back.
Also in 1987, authorities exhumed the body of Sharon Williams and ruled her death a homicide. Prosecutors charged that James Williams had bludgeoned her and staged a car crash. He later gave permission for her life support to be removed.
JoAnn Williams also is charged with Scott's murder. Her trial is scheduled to begin April 26.
Michael Turken, the defense attorney for James Williams, said he would appeal the case, partly because the charges against Williams was changed during the trial.
Williams originally was charged with first-degree murder by the St. Charles County grand jury that indicted him in 1988. During his trial, prosecutors asked that the charges against Williams be changed to capital murder because the charge of first-degree murder did not exist in Missouri in 1983.
Turken said Williams should have been charged under the statutes that were in effect at the time of the killings, which called for capital murder.
