Linn County jury convicts Cedar Rapids man of trying to kill ex-girlfriend

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Linn County jury Thursday convicted a Cedar Rapids man who attempted to kill his ex-girlfriend by stabbing her in 2022.

The jury deliberated about 35 minutes, following about two days of testimony, before finding Nickie Ray Williams, 51, guilty of attempted murder and willful injury causing serious injury — both felonies — and domestic abuse assault with a dangerous weapon and use of a dangerous weapon in commission of a crime, both aggravated misdemeanors.

  Buy Photo

He faces up to 39 years in prison.

Marquita Robertson Lee, 38, who was stabbed by Williams on July 21, 2022, did not show up to testify. Assistant Linn County Attorney Molly Edwards tried numerous efforts to find her, but couldn’t.

A judge allowed Edwards to use Lee’s deposition at the trial in lieu of her in-person testimony.

“We believe the jury’s guilty verdicts were based on strong, compelling and credible evidence even without Ms. Robertson being present to testify,” Edwards said Friday.

Using a deposition at trial was a “fairly rare circumstance” in criminal cases because most witnesses are available, and many times not all witnesses have a deposition taken before trial, Edwards noted.

“There are times when a witness is unavailable and we don’t have a transcript to read, like in the recent Curtis Padgett case,” Edwards said. In that first-degree murder case, prosecutors said Padgett confessed to three witnesses but they died before the trial.

“Ms. Robertson’s deposition was very impactful. She described the stabbing in detail,” she said.

In the deposition, Robertson Lee stated, ‘After he cut my neck I felt my blood just dripping down, it was warm, so I instantly grabbed it and then he switch hands with the knife. So now the knife is in his left hand and he’s still real close to me and he stabbed me in my left side. And I remember I could not breathe and then I felt like I was going to fall, but he was holding me up. And then he turned the knife and put it in his right hand and stabbed me on the right side and just let me fall.’”

Robertson Lee’s deposition testimony was corroborated by Williams’ own 911 call, where he confessed to the dispatcher, “I stabbed Marquita Robertson,” Edwards said. It was also corroborated by the police investigation and medical testimony.

“Police responded to the scene and found her laying in the doorway to the residence with wounds that were actively bleeding,” Edwards said. “A knife with blood on it was on the ground near her feet.”

At the time of the stabbing, there was a no-contact order in place against Williams, according to the criminal complaint.

Robertson Lee had three wounds — one on her neck and two on her back, according to trial testimony. One of the wounds on her back caused a hemopneumothorax — air and blood in her chest cavity putting pressure around her lungs, causing trouble with breathing.

Williams will be sentenced Nov. 15 in Linn County District Court.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com