A 55-year-old Michigan man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for brutally killing Michigan radio news anchor Jim Matthews last year, bludgeoning him with a hammer and slitting his throat in front of his family.
Macomb County Circuit Court Judge James Biernat on Thursday ordered Arthur Levan Williamson to serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility for parole for slaying Matthews, authorities confirmed.
Arthur Williams, 55, was given the scathing tongue-lashing on Thursday just before the judge sentenced him to life in prison over Jim Matthews’ slaying and the attack on his family near Detroit last September.
“You’re a pedophile, you’re a murderer and you’re the embodiment of evil,”
Macomb County Circuit Court Judge James Biernat said
“The only thing that’s amazing is you didn’t kill all of them.”
Williamson of Pontiac pleaded no contest in April to first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder and unlawful imprisonment. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is used as such at sentencing.
In September, WWJ-AM overnight anchor Jim Matthews was found bludgeoned with a hammer in Chesterfield Township, northeast of Detroit.
Authorities have said Williamson, 55, was a friend of Matthews’ girlfriend, Nichole Guertin. Guertin and the 10-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter she shared with Matthews were injured.
The boy was also struck in the head with the hammer and left tied up in a closet.
The killer then tried to take his own life by overdosing.
“Try to commit suicide before you do any of this,” the judge told him. “Take yourself out so you don’t kill people and try to rape 5-year-olds.”
Prosecutors said Williamson, who knew the slain victim’s long-term girlfriend Nichole Guertin, had gone to the family’s home the night of Sept. 23 to smoke crack while Matthews was working the overnight shift.
Guertin testified during the trial that Williamson slashed her throat with a knife and zip-tied her wrists and ankles when she refused to role play for him — before he then turned on the kids and attacked them.
