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Man guilty of murder of Omar Massey-Wideman
Wednesday, November 24, 1999 By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A jury yesterday found Stanford Williams of the Hill District guilty of first-degree murder in the Nov. 8, 1993 execution-style murder of Omar Massey-Wideman.
Williams, 31, was the last of three defendants charged with Massey-Wideman's death.
Ronald McKeithan, 25, of West Mifflin, was acquitted in a jury trial in July 1998. McKeithan was killed May 10 in a motorcycle accident on Kennywood Boulevard in West Mifflin.
The other defendant, Leon Godfrey, 34, of Hazelwood, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced in April 1998 to life plus 10 to 20 years in prison.
Massey-Wideman was the nephew of author John Edgar Wideman, who wrote the book "Brothers and Keepers," a story about the different paths he and his brother, Robert Wideman, had taken.
Robert Wideman had been serving a life sentence in prison for a 1975 murder until the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial for him. He still is incarcerated awaiting the retrial.
According to police testimony during Williams' trial, Massey-Wideman was in a fight with Godfrey at a Hazelwood bar the evening of Nov. 7, 1993.
"Omar Massey essentially had been getting the better of Leon Godfrey," Assistant District Attorney Thomas Merrick said during his closing argument to the jury yesterday.
Merrick said police who arrived at the scene heard Godfrey remark: "Me and my boys will take care of it. What happens on the streets stays on the streets."
Merrick said Godfrey refused to cooperate with police at the scene.
"Less than five hours after these statements, Omar Massey ... will lie dead, shot at very close range in the head and face," Merrick said.
The shooting occurred about 1:15 a.m. Nov. 8.
Massey-Wideman's girlfriend testified that at least two men barged into their home on Sylvan Avenue in Hazelwood, went to the bedroom and murdered Massey-Wideman.
A short time later, police pursued a Toyota 4Runner driven by Williams on Beechwood Boulevard. A pistol, later identified as one of the murder weapons, was seen tossed from the fleeing vehicle.
Two other weapons were seized after the three men were captured.
Defense attorney David Shrager argued in closing that Williams had not been an accomplice to the murder. Williams picked up the other two men as much as a half-hour after the shooting, Shrager said.
As police followed Williams' vehicle, he pulled over, then sped off and pulled over again only to speed away.
"What do you think those two killers in that car -- Godfrey and McKeithan -- were telling Stanford Williams? Stop! Go! Go!" Shrager told the jury.
Williams already is serving a sentence in federal prison for an unrelated conviction.
Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman will sentence him next month for the murder conviction, which carries a mandatory life term with no parole.
Godfrey also is serving time unrelated to Massey-Wideman's murder -- six to 12 years for homicide by vehicle in connection with a May 1994 two-car collision that killed Julia Renton, 75, of Munhall, on the Homestead High-Level Bridge.
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