Third trial begins for man accused in 2020 New Kensington killing

Letresse Tareke Williams sat in a Westmoreland County courtroom for the third time in eighteen months as a jury was sworn in to hear the same charges: that he murdered a 33-year-old drug dealer named Anthone Williams on a January morning in 2020. The victim was shot outside an empty housing complex in New Kensington during what prosecutors say was a planned robbery. Williams, now 35, has been held without bond since his arrest, waiting through two previous trials that collapsed when jurors could not reach unanimity on the central charge of second-degree murder.

On January 15, 2020, Anthone Williams was killed inside a car. Prosecutors contend that Letresse Williams and another man carried out the shooting together, with Letresse firing two shots—one of them fatal. The second shooter was never charged. The case has produced physical evidence that prosecutors say ties Williams directly to the crime: a cellphone left in the vehicle where the victim's body was found, with DNA matching Williams on the SIM card inside it. That same DNA was discovered on the barrel of the suspected murder weapon, which police recovered from the woods several hundred feet away, hidden under a board.

The two previous trials, one in June 2024 and another last August, both ended in mistrials. In each instance, eleven of the twelve jurors voted to convict Williams of second-degree murder, but the jury could not reach unanimity on all counts. Williams was acquitted of first-degree murder in the first trial—a charge that would have carried a mandatory life sentence without parole. A conviction on second-degree murder also carries a mandatory life sentence in Pennsylvania, making the distinction between the two charges largely academic in terms of outcome.

Williams has testified in his own defense during both previous trials, denying any involvement in the murder. His account has remained consistent: he lent his cellphone to another man weeks before the shooting and sold the suspected murder weapon before the crime occurred. His defense attorney, Jaclyn Shaw, has argued that the prosecution's case lacks eyewitnesses and that the evidence is insufficient to prove either robbery or murder. "There are no eyewitnesses and the commonwealth will struggle to prove it," Shaw told jurors in her opening statement.

Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli framed the case differently in his opening, telling jurors that evidence would demonstrate the murder grew out of a robbery that had been planned in advance. He acknowledged the victim's involvement in drug dealing but made a pointed statement to the jury: "Anthone Williams is the victim but the penalty for selling cocaine is not the death penalty." Testimony began Monday before Judge Scott Mears.

The case carries additional weight because Williams faces a separate trial on four counts of attempted murder. Those charges stem from a shooting on a New Kensington street on December 1, 2019—just over two weeks before Anthone Williams' death. Prosecutors contend the same weapon was used in both incidents. In his previous trials, Williams admitted to possessing the gun used in the December shooting, though he has maintained he did not fire it in either incident.

The jury seated late last week now carries the burden of resolving what two previous juries could not: whether the physical evidence—the DNA, the cellphone, the weapon—proves beyond reasonable doubt that Letresse Williams pulled the trigger. The stakes are absolute: conviction means life in prison; acquittal means freedom after five years in custody awaiting trial. The courtroom will hear the same facts, the same arguments, and the same competing narratives about a man's guilt or innocence in a killing that has already consumed nearly five years of the legal system's attention.