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MURDER SUSPECT ACCEPTS PLEA DEAL; GETS 15 YEARS

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 10:02 AM CDT

A Pine Bluff man who was charged in a stabbing death last year avoided a trial Tuesday morning when he pleaded no contest to the charge.

Through a deal worked out with prosecutors and his attorney, Daniel Sanders, 53, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis just before his trial was to have started in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

Sanders had been charged with second-degree murder but entered the plea to a reduced charge of manslaughter in the death of Ralph J. Williams, 54.

Williams’ body was found in the driveway of the Jonas Williams Upholstery Shop at 707 W. Pullen St., on Sept. 7, 2008. Ralph Williams was not related to the owner of the shop.

Police said the incident followed an altercation between Sanders and Williams inside a house located behind the shop, and also involved Donita Williams, the sister of the owner of the shop. She was also not related to Ralph Williams.

Ralph Williams was living with Donita Williams at the time of the incident.

At a probable cause hearing Sept. 10, 2008, Deputy Prosecutor Karres Manning said Donita Williams told police she and Ralph Williams had been drinking at the Lakeshore Apartments on West Barraque Street when they got into an argument, and went back to their house where the argument continued.

Manning said Sanders came into the house and he and Ralph Williams got into an argument, then a fight that continued out into the street, and Donita Williams said Sanders knocked on the door a few minutes later and told her not to say anything, then left.

Sanders was arrested a day later after police distributed photos of him on the north side of Pine Bluff.

Manning said Sanders had blood on his pants, scratches on his face and a knot on his head, but claimed he got them in a previous incident for which he was arrested.

“Police confirmed that he had been locked up for that prior incident but there were no reported injuries on his medical sheet from the jail,” Manning said, adding that Sanders and Donita Williams had been involved in a prior relationship.”

Sanders, who had been held at the county detention center on a $100,000 bond since his arrest, will receive credit for the time he was held pending trial.

Deputy Prosecutors Maxie Kizer and Jill Reed represented the state and Sanders was represented by attorney Sandra Trotter Phillips from the Public Defender’s Office.

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