14-year-old twins charged with first-degree murder in slaying of K.C.

The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Twin 14-year-old brothers went to church three days after they executed an elderly couple during a robbery, the prosecutor said Monday as first-degree murder charges were filed.

The boys were in church even as police followed leads trying to find the killers of Wilbur John Williams, 79, and Wilma F. Williams, 73, said longtime prosecutor Nick Tomasic.

"They didn't show any remorse," he said of the young defendants. "The property was there, and they were going to get it. Their only remorse is that they got caught."

Tomasic said Donell and Ronell Williams were roaming their neighborhood when they came upon the victims' house and saw Wilbur Williams working in the front yard.

The boys forced the man inside and to the kitchen, along with his wife, who was in the back. As Donell ransacked the house, Tomasic said, Ronell held the couple at gunpoint before telling Wilbur Williams he was about to die.

He fired on the man several times with a semiautomatic pistol before turning the gun on Wilma Williams, Tomasic said.

"She knew she was going to be killed," he said. "You can imagine the terror going through her mind."

The boys left the house with jewelry and less than $100 in cash before speeding away in the couple's car. The car was later found burning in an apparent attempt to hide evidence after broadcast reports of the killings and missing car, Tomasic said.

A tip -- on which police wouldn't elaborate -- led to the boys' arrests Sunday at their home, where they lived with their mother and two siblings, said Detective Greg Lawson.

The boys have talked with investigators, but Tomasic wouldn't say whether they confessed.

The killings' brutal nature prompted the first-degree murder charges and the likelihood Tomasic will push for the maximum 50-year sentence for each defendant, on each killing.

In addition to murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary charges against the boys, Donell Williams was charged with additional counts of burglary and theft related to at least three separate break-ins in the days leading to the deaths.

One of those burglaries produced the murder weapon, Tomasic said.

The boys were held Monday without bond, pending a detention hearing later this week. Prosecutors are expected to ask a judge to waive the boys' juvenile status, allowing them to be tried as adults.

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