(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater woman — who complained about being abused to a neighbor two days before his body was found with multiple stab wounds in their burning apartment building – was given a 10-year prison term for being an accessory to first-degree arson after an accessory to first-degree murder count was dropped against her by the prosecution last week.
In accordance with a plea bargain, Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler told Rachel Marie Willis, 37, in court Friday that when she successfully completed an intensive substance abuse treatment program in prison, he would suspend the balance of her 10-year sentence.
Prosecutor Debra Vincent said that the decision to drop the murder accessory count against Willis, whose husband allegedly killed the neighbor before he was shot to death by police, was “made after consultation with the family of the victim.”
The prosecutor said that the prison treatment program, which Willis was ordered into Friday on her guilty plea to being an accessory to arson, takes four to 12 months.
The body of 64-year-old William C. Marg was discovered by the front door in his downstairs apartment by Stillwater firefighters responding to a fire in the upstairs apartment in the 100 block of W. Scott Street shortly before 9 a.m. on Jan. 29, a police affidavit said.
Willis, who lived with her husband, Ralph Willis III, 42, in the upstairs apartment where fires were set in two locations in the kitchen and gas knobs were turned on the stove, had told the slain man two days earlier “she was tired of being abused by Ralph,” an affidavit said.
In a victim impact statement filed in court records, one of the slain man’s daughters wrote, “We as his children would like to see her punished for what she did do, but not stiffly enough to not consider that she was a possible domestic violence victim as well.”
When Rachel Willis was interviewed by police, she said that during the evening of Jan. 27, she and her husband had been drinking alcohol in their upstairs apartment and Ralph Willis fell asleep, an affidavit said.
“Rachel said Ralph woke up and yelled at her. She stated he fell back asleep and she went to the downstairs apartment to contact the neighbor, William Marg.
“Rachel said she spoke with William and told him she was tired of being abused by Ralph. Rachel said William contacted someone from a church.
“Rachel stated the preacher from a church showed up at William’s house. She stated she and the preacher, along with the preacher’s wife, got into the preacher’s vehicle and went for a drive.
“Rachel stated while they were driving around, she decided she did not want to leave Ralph and requested they take her back home.
“Rachel said the preacher took her to the parking lot of Hastings. She stated while in the parking lot, she used the preacher’s cell phone to call Ralph.
“She stated Ralph walked up to the Hastings parking lot and she left the parking lot with Ralph,” to go back to their apartment, the affidavit said.
“She stated later that same night Ralph told her he had awakened to her being gone. She said Ralph told her he went downstairs to William’s apartment and got into an altercation with William.
“Rachel said Ralph alleged that William stabbed him with a knife. Rachel stated Ralph had a cut on the back of his arm, which he had covered with a Band-Aid.
“Rachel said Ralph told her he killed William,” the affidavit alleged.
“She stated Ralph talked about ways to dispose of William’s body,” including dumping it, the affidavit alleged.
“Based on Rachel’s actions upon learning about the murder of William and her action with assisting Ralph with removing their personal items from the residence prior to the fire,” Stillwater Police Detective Lt. Jeff Watts alleged in an affidavit, “probable cause exists to believe Rachel committed the crimes of accessory after the fact of murder and accessory to arson.”
When officers tried to take the couple into custody on outstanding warrants after they were spotted coming out of the Stillwater Walmart on Perkins Road, the Willises took off running, the affidavit said.
Ralph Willis, who was an ex-convict, was killed by one of the officers attempting to arrest him, the affidavit said.
The fatal shooting of Ralph Willis by Stillwater Police Detective Cody Manuel was ruled justified by Payne County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas.
Rachel Willis, who was quickly taken into custody, later told police, “Ralph told her he would not go back to prison and that he would make the police kill him if necessary,” Stillwater Police Cpt. Kyle Gibbs said in a news release.
At the time of her arrest, Rachel Willis had misdemeanor warrants for failure to pay on a 2012 public intoxication charge as well as warrants for littering and obstructing an officer charge that same year, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a news release.
At the time of his death, Ralph Willis, who was on supervised release from Kansas, had arrest warrants for failure to appear in court on two 1991 second-degree burglary charges and a failure to pay in a 1992 escape from a penal institution charge, the OSBI news release said.
According to Oklahoma Department of Corrections records, Ralph Willis III had been convicted of two second-degree burglaries in Craig County in 1991, for which he was given two concurrent three-year prison terms followed by two years of probation.
A year later, Ralph Willis was convicted of escape from a state penitentiary in Craig County in 1992 for which he was given a two-year prison term, DOC records show.
The following year, Ralph Willis was convicted of escaping from a state penitentiary in Okfuskee County in 1992 for which he was given a two-year probationary term, DOC records show.
***
