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Michael McLelland, Kaufam County District Attorney, and his wife Cynthia were found shot to death inside their home on March 30, 2013. The incident occurred two months after Mark Hasse, the top prosecutor under McLelland, was shot to death in public in broad daylight by a masked man.
They were murdered as part of a revenge plot orchestrated by the county's former Justice of the Peace, Eric Williams, and his wife, Kim Williams, who were arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with all three killings. It was later revealed that Eric murdered them because Michael McLelland and Hasse were responsible for prosecuting him in a theft and burglary case, which cost him his legal license.
Eric was found guilty and sentenced to death. According to reports, he is still on death row.
Kaufman County District Attorney Michael McLelland was shot multiple times, his wife Cynthia was shot once
Michael McLelland was 40 years old when he started law school at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. His former classmate, one-time legal partner Michael Burns, said that becoming a district attorney was "what he always wanted to do." In 2010, he became the famed DA of Kaufman County, a position that would ultimately lead to his death.
On March 30, 2013, over the Easter weekend, he and his wife Cynthia were shot to death. The couple was discovered dead the same evening at their Forney, Texas, home in the eastern suburbs of Dallas. According to reports, Cynthia McLelland was only shot once, whereas the DA was shot numerous times with a firearm that authorities at the time believed to be an assault weapon.
The incident happened two months after Kaufman County's associate district attorney, Mark Hasse, was gunned down by a masked shooter early in the morning as he was walking towards the courthouse from the parking lot. On January 30, the man, dressed in all black, shot Hasse and then rushed over to a getaway car and drove off.
Couple convicted in Cynthia and Michael McLelland and Mark Hasse's murder cases
Soon after the deaths, Eric Williams, a former Justice of the Peace, and his wife Kim were arrested in connection with the three murders. Williams allegedly methodically planned his revenge against the men after they prosecuted him for theft and burglary in 2012. He lost both his legal license and his position, and thus sought vengeance. The couple were charged with capital murder.
Kim testified against her husband during the high-profile trial, which assisted in sending him to death row. She pleaded guilty to acting as an accomplice—the getaway driver—and helping in planning the murders.
She also said that she assisted Eric in properly disposing of the firearms used to shoot the McLellands. Kim stated that he had two other district attorneys and a former judge on his hit list, but they were arrested before they could kill again.
The testimony helped send Eric Williams to death row, while Kim was handed a 40-year prison sentence with the possibility of parole. The judge compared Williams to other notorious serial killers, stating that his crimes put him "right there with Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Speck."
Learn more about the killings of Cynthia and Michael McLelland on Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
