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$100K CASH BOND SET IN SUNDAY HOMICIDE

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, September 11, 2008 4:39 PM CDT

A $100,000 cash bond was set Wednesday for a Pine Bluff man who allegedly stabbed another man to death Sunday.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Berlin Jones set the bond for Daniel Sanders, 52, after ruling prosecutors had probable cause to charge Sanders with second-degree murder.

Sanders is accused of causing the death of Ralph J. Williams, 54, whose body was found in the driveway of the Jonas Williams Upholstery Shop at 707 W. Pullen St., at approximately 7 a.m. Sunday. Ralph Williams was not related to the owner of the shop, authorities said.

Reading from an affidavit from Detective Henry Hudspeth, Deputy Prosecutor Karres Manning said Ralph Williams was living with Donita Williams, the sister of the owner of the shop, in a house behind the business.

When she was questioned, she told officers she and Ralph Williams had gotten into an argument Saturday night after the two had been drinking at the Lakeshore Apartments, located on West Barraque Street. Donita Williams said she and Ralph Williams had gone back to their house where the argument continued, Manning said.

“She said she heard a knock on the door and Daniel came in, and he and Ralph got into an argument and then a fight inside the house that continued outside to the street,” Manning quoted the affidavit as saying. “She said she tried to break up the fight but couldn’t and went back into the house and went to sleep.”

Manning said Donita Williams told officers Ralph Williams knocked on the door, “told her not to say anything,” and then left, and she went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until police knocked on her door.

Detectives contacted several people at the Lakeshore Apartments who confirmed that they had seen Sanders at the apartments at the same time Donita Williams and Ralph Williams were there.

Sanders, who Manning said was homeless, was arrested Monday after police distributed photos of him on the north side of Pine Bluff where he reportedly hung out, and about two hours later, a citizen called and said Sanders was behind a store at University Drive and Vaugine Street.

Manning said Sanders had blood on his pants, scratches on his face and a knot on his head when he was arrested, but claimed that he had gotten the injuries in a previous incident for which he was arrested.

“Police confirmed he had been locked up but for that prior incident, but there were no injuries reported on his medical sheet from the jail,” Manning said, adding that Sanders told detectives he and Donita Williams had “a relationship in the past, and while he saw her at the apartments, he didn’t approach her.”

In addition to the latest allegation, Manning said Sanders had a pending rape charge from an incident in 2007, and felony convictions dating back to the 1980s.

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