A Springfield man, who as a teenager pleaded guilty to pulling a kitten behind a Jeep until it died, is back in jail after prosecutors charged him with first-degree assault in a Thursday night stabbing.
According to a probable cause statement, multiple people witnessed Kyle W. Williams, 24, stabbing a man multiple times with a steak knife outside the John B. Hughes apartments in Springfield late Thursday night.
A total of six witnesses, some who knew Williams and others in the complex that heard a disturbance, gave police similar stories about what they saw, though there’s little explanation of why a stabbing occurred.
According to the statement, Williams was in a verbal disturbance with a woman in one of the apartments. She told police she called someone else to come over because of Williams’ behavior. That person later arrived at the apartment with the victim at the same time Williams was leaving.
That person told police she heard Williams say he was going to kill the victim. Some witnesses said they first thought Williams was simply punching the victim, but later saw the knife or heard the victim say he was being stabbed. One witness told police they heard Williams say, “I kill (racial slur) like this every day.”
Multiple witnesses said they saw Williams flee the scene before being arrested by Greene County deputies.
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Police later observed the victim and saw multiple wounds, including to the lower back and abdomen. They also said he was reluctant to talk about the incident but seemed upset about being assaulted.
Police say Williams is a larger threat to the community because of his past offenses and was on supervised release at the time of the incident.
Back in 2017, Williams was arrested and charged after police determined he killed a kitten by dragging the feline behind a vehicle.
Officials said he “tied a rope around a cat’s neck and to the bumper of a vehicle.”
“Williams then drove the vehicle while unknown friends filmed the cat run behind the vehicle until it could not run anymore,” the probable cause statement said. “The cat died behind the vehicle and the individuals continued riding around laughing as the cat tossed and turned behind the car.”
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Officers found Williams after he posted the fatal footage to Facebook.
“Upon review of the video the animal appears healthy and scared as the rope is placed around its neck,” the statement said, adding that laughing and somebody saying “this will be funny” were audible in the footage.
Williams was charged with felony animal abuse and armed criminal action, charges he pleaded guilty to in 2018.
In charges filed Friday, Williams faces first-degree assault and armed criminal action. The assault charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Man found guilty of dragging kitten behind car in 2017 charged again
