A second witness who testified she heard Becky Lucrezi Olson
admit to killing a Kane Borough Police officer in 1999 has been
charged with perjury.
Kane-based state police have charged Michelle Lynn Nelson, 27,
of Austin with perjury, a third-degree felony, for testimony she
gave on Oct. 22, 2004, during a Post Conviction Relief Petition
hearing for convicted cop killer Timothy Williams.
Williams was convicted in 1999 of third-degree murder,
recklessly endangering another person and possessing a firearm
without a license.
The Coudersport man is currently serving a 22-40 year sentence
in state prison in the death of Steve Jerman, 46, who was gunned
down after he pulled over Williams for driving erratically in
Wetmore Township in February 1999.
During the course of Williams’s appeal, several people have come
forward claiming they heard Lucrezi Olson, whose car Williams was
driving, brag she was the actual shooter. To date, two have been
charged with perjury.
According to a press release from the state police, “a
subsequent state police investigation revealed that the testimony
given by the accused was fundamentally false and inconsistent with
statements made by her before court proceedings.”
The charges were filed Nov. 18 with District Judge James Miller.
A spokeswoman there said Tuesday afternoon that a warrant was
issued for Nelson’s arrest Dec. 2. Nelson has not been located.
Nelson testified in an October 2004 hearing that she heard
Lucrezi Olson say that her boyfriend was taking the blame for
something she did. She also said that at another time, she and
Lucrezi got into a fistfight when Lucrezi Olson mentioned she shot
Jerman and Williams was getting what he deserved.
Nelson was allegedly with Marian Kay Nersinger when she heard
Lucrezi Olson admit to the shooting. Nersinger, the first person to
have come forward claiming to have heard Lucrezi Olson’s
admissions, was charged in October 2004 with perjury.
Nersinger had originally said she was with Michelle Crawford
when she overheard Lucrezi Olson’s statement outside of Sheetz in
Coudersport. She later said she was mistaken and confused after
chemotherapy.
A special hearing was held in July 2004 because Nersinger has
cancer and was not expected to survive.
In late October of this year, McKean County Judge John Yoder
ruled that the case against Nersinger would proceed after her
attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges.
Sam Stretton, an attorney from West Chester, represents both
Williams and Nersinger.
Stretton, who had not heard about the new charges until
contacted by The Era Tuesday afternoon, called the perjury charge
“outrageous.” He also said he’s willing to represent Nelson,
too.
“They got another one of my witnesses,” he said. “I don’t know
what they are doing but it is outrageous and wrong.”
Stretton has complained that charges against Nersinger were not
made public until right before the October 2004 hearing. During
that hearing, Nelson said she was not deterred and “Death could not
keep me from here.”
She noted how close she was with Williams and his family and
even named her son after the defendant.
“I really want to help him out for his innocence,” she said at
that hearing, adding she had not come forward sooner because of
personal problems.
In a brief filed in October in the Williams case, District
Attorney John Pavlock pointed to many things in Nelson’s testimony
that should be brought into question, including her animosity
towards Lucrezi Olson.
“Amazingly, despite being touted by the defense in their
petition as a key witness with information that would support
Nersinger, Nelson initially testified on direct that she was never
in the vicinity of Lucrezi and Nersinger in downtown Coudersport
when Lucrezi made some statements,” Pavlock wrote.
Later, when interviewed by the state police, Nelson “suddenly
remembered a ‘brawl’ that happened … that she amazingly did not
recall before,” Pavlock said in the brief.
Pavlock also said in the brief that Nelson remembered also being
with Jamie Harmon and Amy Peet, Nersinger’s sister, when they heard
Lucrezi Olson’s admission. Harmon and Peet, however, did not back
this claim up.
The DA also said Nelson’s statements about what Lucrezi Olson
said would also change. Nelson’s time frame also did not match
Nersinger’s, he said.
During the hearing, Lucrezi Olson, who was 17 when the shooting
occurred, testified that she has never admitted to shooting Jerman
and that she and Matt Seeley, another passenger in the car, were in
the back seat putting their clothes back on after having sex when
Williams shot Jerman.
To this day, Williams – who was critically injured after the
shooting – claims he was too drunk to remember what happened that
morning. Lucrezi Olson testified at the trial that she yelled for
Williams to shoot Jerman.
Clarion County Judge Charles Alexander is currently reviewing
the Williams case to determine if the 25-year-old should get a new
trial.
