(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater man who was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a burning apartment building had attempted two days earlier to help a female neighbor complaining of domestic abuse, according to an affidavit filed in court records last week.
The body of 64-year-old William C. Marg was discovered by the front door in his downstairs apartment by Stillwater firefighters responding to a fire in the upstairs apartment in the 100 block of W. Scott Street shortly before 9 a.m. on Jan. 29, an affidavit said.
Ralph Willis III, 42, and his wife, Rachel Marie Willis, 37, who had told the slain man two days earlier “she was tired of being abused by Ralph,” lived in the upstairs apartment — where fires were set in two locations in the kitchen and gas knobs were turned on the stove, an affidavit said.
When officers tried to take the couple into custody on outstanding warrants after they were spotted coming out of the Stillwater Walmart on Perkins Road, the Willises took off running, Stillwater Police Detective Lt. Jeff Watts wrote in an affidavit.
Ralph Willis, who was an ex-convict, was killed by one of the officers attempting to arrest him, the affidavit said. The fatal shooting of Ralph Willis by Stillwater Police Detective Cody Manuel was ruled justified by District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas.
Rachel Willis, who was quickly taken into custody, later told police “Ralph told her he would not go back to prison and that he would make the police kill him if necessary,” Stillwater Police Lt. Cpt. Kyle Gibbs said in a news release.
Rachel Willis has been jailed on $250,000 bond on charges of being an accessory to first-degree murder of their neighbor and first-degree arson. She was scheduled to appear in court this afternoon when she can seek a preliminary hearing on the charges.
A witness told police that before the fire, two individuals carried three duffle bags down the stairwell leading to the Willises’ apartment, which they put into a shopping cart that they pushed west on Scott to Husband Street, Watts’ affidavit said.
Stillwater police obtained search warrants for both apartments for evidence related to the cause of the fire in the Willises’ upstairs apartment and the death of Marg in his downstairs apartment, the affidavit said.
When Rachel Willis was interviewed by police, she said that during the evening of Jan. 27, she and her husband had been drinking alcohol in their apartment and Ralph Willis fell asleep, the affidavit said.
“Rachel said Ralph woke up and yelled at her. She stated he fell back asleep and she went to the downstairs apartment to contact the neighbor, William Marg.
“Rachel said she spoke with William and told him she was tired of being abused by Ralph. Rachel said William contacted someone from a church.
“Rachel stated the preacher from a church showed up at William’s house. She stated she and the preacher, along with the preacher’s wife, got into the preacher’s vehicle and went for a drive.
“Rachel stated while they were driving around, she decided she did not want to leave Ralph and requested they take her back home.
“Rachel said the preacher took her to the parking lot of Hastings. She stated while in the parking lot, she used the preacher’s cell phone to call Ralph.
“She stated Ralph walked up to the Hastings parking lot and she left the parking lot with Ralph,” to go back to their apartment, the affidavit said.
“She stated later that same night Ralph told her he had awakened to her being gone. She said Ralph told her he went downstairs to William’s apartment and got into an altercation with William.
“Rachel said Ralph alleged that William stabbed him with a knife. Rachel stated Ralph had a cut on the back of his arm, which he had covered with a Band-Aid.
“Rachel said Ralph told her he killed William,” the affidavit alleged.
She said that the next day, they stayed at home, the affidavit said.
“She stated Ralph talked about ways to dispose of William’s body,” including dumping it, the affidavit alleged.
“Rachel stated she did not contact anyone or tell anyone what Ralph told her,” the affidavit said.
She first told the detective that on Jan. 29 they went to a laundry with their clothes, but later admitted they did not do that, but instead “put the items into the bags and a suitcase,” which they pushed in a shopping cart to a house belonging to one of her husband’s friends, and put them in a small outbuilding, the affidavit alleged.
“Rachel stated after they put the bags into the outbuilding, they were contacted by Ralph’s boss,” who told her their apartment was on fire, the affidavit alleged.
“Rachel stated Ralph’s boss gave them a ride to the area where they live. She stated they saw the fire trucks and police vehicles, but did not stop,” the affidavit alleged.
When police went the storage building, the bags contained “numerous items of clothing, towels and family pictures,” the affidavit said.
“Also located in one of the duffle bags were a Coleman camping fuel can, which contained a small amount of fuel, and an empty lighter fluid bottle, the affidavit alleged.
“Based on Rachel’s action upon learning about the murder of William and her action with assisting Ralph with removing their personal items from the residence prior to the fire,” the detective alleged “probable cause exists to believe Rachel committed the crime of accessory after the act of murder and accessory to arson,” according to the affidavit.
If convicted of both felony counts, Rachel Willis could be given as much as a 62 and one-half year prison term, according to the charge filed by First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Etherington.
At the time of her arrest, Rachel Willis had misdemeanor warrants for failure to pay on a 2012 public intoxication charge as well as warrants for littering and obstructing an officer charge that same year, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a news release.
At the time of his death, Ralph Willis, who was on supervised release from Kansas, had arrest warrants for failure to appear in court on two 1991 second-degree burglary charges and a failure to pay in a 1992 escape from a penal institution charge, the OSBI news release said.
According to Oklahoma Department of Corrections records, Ralph Willis III had been convicted of two second-degree burglaries in Craig County in 1991, for which he was given two concurrent three-year prison terms followed by two years of probation.
A year later, Ralph Willis was convicted of escape from a state penitentiary in Craig County in 1992, for which he was given a two-year prison term, DOC records show.
The following year, Ralph Willis was convicted of escaping from a state penitentiary in Okfuskee County in 1992 for which he was given a two-year probationary term, DOC records show.
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