Updated at 11:45 a.m., Thursday, July 5, 2007
Plea agreement approved in murder of 5-year-old girl
By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Staff Writer
U.S. District Judge David Ezra approved the agreement between federal prosecutors and lawyers for Delilah Williams in the battered-child death of Talia Williams in July 2005.
The agreement also calls for Delilah Williams to testify against her husband Naeem Williams, who is charged with murdering his daughter. Naeem Williams faces the death penalty if convicted. His trial is scheduled for May. It would be the first death penalty trial here since the 1950s when the Territory of Hawai'i abolished the death penalty.
Delilah Williams, who pleaded guilty earlier, will be sentenced after the trial and remains in custody. The sentencing date will be determined later.
Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.