Retrial begins in 2020 New Kensington fatal shooting

For the second time in 14 months, Westmoreland County prosecutors will attempt to convince a jury that Letresse Williams killed a suspected drug dealer during a botched robbery attempt.

Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli said the Jan. 15, 2020, fatal shooting of Anthone Williams warrants a second-degree murder conviction. (Letresse Williams and Anthone Williams are not related.)

Second-degree murder is a killing that occurs during the commission of another felony.

Monday was the first day of the retrial of Letresse Williams, 34, of New Kensington.

“Anthone Williams was dealing cocaine and that is the very reason he was killed. The penalty for selling cocaine is not the death penalty,” Iannamorelli told jurors Monday in his opening statement.

Anthone Williams was shot three times during the robbery, prosecutors said. He was 31 at the time of his death and a resident of Arnold.

In June 2024, after a weeklong trial, Letresse Williams was acquitted of first-degree murder in the case. Jurors were unable to reach verdicts on other charges, including second-degree murder, a general count of criminal homicide, robbery and a weapons offense.

The second-degree murder conviction that prosecutors are now seeking carries a mandatory life sentence in prison.

Iannamorelli told jurors evidence will show Letresse Williams was one of two men involved in the shooting. His DNA was found inside the barrel of the suspected murder weapon. The weapon was found in the woods about 200 yards from where the victim’s lifeless body was discovered, slumped over in the driver’s seat of a vehicle parked outside a vacant housing authority apartment complex in New Kensington.

Prosecutors contend Letresse Williams’ DNA was also found on a SIM card of a cellphone found wedged in a crevice of the vehicle where the victim’s body was discovered.

“A drug dealer is a great target. You know they have drugs and money and will agree to meet you in a secluded place. This was a setup that was planned before it happened,” Iannamorelli said.

Westmoreland County Det. John Swartz, under questioning from defense attorney Jaclyn Shaw, testified that Anthone Williams’ body was found with more than 27 grams of cocaine, an amount that carries a street value of about $2,000, and $40 in cash. Police initially identified three other men as potential suspects in the shooting, Swartz testified.

In her opening statement, Shaw questioned the prosecution’s theory of the case and told jurors there were no witnesses to the shooting.

“If this was a robbery and a setup, why were there drugs and money still on the victim?” Shaw said.

Letresse Williams has maintained his innocence since his arrest nearly five years ago. He testified last year that before the fatal shooting, he sold both his gun and cellphone to another man, whom he implicated in the killing but never identified.

Testimony will continue Tuesday.

Letresse Williams, in a related case, is also awaiting trial on four counts of attempted homicide in connection with allegations he shot at a parked vehicle in early December 2019 in New Kensington. Prosecutors contend the same gun used in the January 2020 homicide was fired at the van. Three women were in the vehicle and another person was outside it.

Williams, during his first murder trial, conceded he at one time possessed the suspected murder weapon used in the van shooting. Prosecutors claim ballistics evidence suggests Williams’ gun was used in both shootings.

No trial date for the attempted homicide case has been set.