Murder Case Against Seaford Man Heads to Grand Jury

By Kimberly Lenz Thursday, February 18, 2010

First degree murder charges against a Seaford man were certified to the grand jury Wednesday morning.

York-Poquoson General District Judge Michael McGinty said the Commonwealth had met the burden of proving probable cause in its case against Allen Dale Williams.

The 39-year-old is accused of murdering Thomas Ragans, whose Dandy home Williams went to early Nov. 15, 2009 to confront the man about a suspected affair with Williams’ wife.

Robyn Ragans, Thomas Ragans’ widow, testified at length during the preliminary hearing and offered the first view of what happened. She described an emotional 12 hours that began watching a relative’s children in the early evening Nov. 14, then took a quick turn for the worse when a stranger called with word her husband was having an affair with the stranger’s wife. Hours later there’d been an angry confrontation, an admission of infidelity, and a tumble down a flight of stairs that ended with Thomas Ragans’ death.

Robyn Ragans said Williams called her cell phone Nov. 14, introducing himself and the idea her husband was being unfaithful. The two traded several calls that night, she testified, with Williams becoming increasingly agitated as the night went on.

During calls to her husband that night, Robyn Ragans said he’d denied the affair accusations and said he’d stopped by a friend’s house and her husband “got the wrong idea.”

When both had returned home around 12:45 a.m. Nov. 15, Thomas Ragans continued to deny the accusations his wife had heard from Williams that night.

Around 6:15 a.m. Robyn Ragans testified she woke up, put on a pot of coffee and took the family dogs outside. She brought the dogs back in, leaving the front door closed but unlocked. When the coffee wasn’t done brewing, she said, she went upstairs to check on email. Soon she heard an unfamiliar man’s voice calling, “Robyn, Robyn.”

Robyn Ragans said she went downstairs to find a shirtless man clad only in sweatpants and tennis shoes, who was met by her husband.

According to Robyn Ragans’ testimony: Williams identified himself, then said, “I am in your house now. How does it feel? You are scared of me now, aren’t you? You should be.”

Williams asked where the Ragans children were; Robyn answered they were not home, while her husband said they were asleep. The couple’s two minor children had fallen asleep at the relative’s house where she was babysitting and spent the night there, Robyn testified.

Williams threw a punch at Thomas Ragans, and the pair began to fight. Thomas Ragans was able to get away, and headed to the kitchen where he grabbed a phone and dialed 911 but was unable to speak to the dispatcher when Williams caught up with him.

The 911 tape, difficult to understand at times, was played in court. The tussle is clear, and a voice Robyn Ragans said was Williams’ can be heard demanding he “be a man” and tell his wife the truth as the dispatcher’s “Hello?” drops in every 15 seconds or so, unanswered.

Williams had pinned Ragans facedown on a kitchen island, saying “You are going to admit it. Be a man. You owe this to me, you owe this to your wife. Admit it and it’s over.”

Ragans got away, heading toward the front door. All three were soon in the living room, where Williams demanded again: “This is not going to be over until you admit it. Be a man.”

Robyn Ragans said her husband “finally admitted” to having an affair with Williams’ wife, but Williams’ questions were not over. He demanded to know, she said, when it had happened and where his children were.

“Allen was screaming and hollering, ‘Where were my kids?’,” she testified. Williams, she said, was bleeding from his head; her husband did not appear wounded from the fight.

Composed during testimony, Robyn Ragans said she was crying as the admission came and Williams pressed for details. “I was absolutely stunned, in disbelief. In the matter of 12 hours my whole world had been turned upside down.”

She walked toward the front door, she said, and told Williams to leave.
Williams continued to scream at her husband, yelling “I am going to kill you,” she said, until all three were at the top of the home’s front porch. Somehow, all three tumbled down the 13 steps to the aggregate drive.

At the bottom, Williams untangled himself, got up and kicked Thomas Ragans in the face and head. Robyn Ragans said she screamed at him, and Williams “took off running.”

Within hours Thomas Ragans was dead, and Williams charged with first degree murder.

Defense attorney Tim Clancy argued that a first degree murder charge, which implied malice as motive, was not appropriate. The 911 call, Clancy said, was Williams’ best evidence – “heat and passion personified in that 911 call. It may be something else, but it’s not first degree murder and maiming.”

The judge disagreed, sending all charges against Williams – first degree murder, felony assault and entering a building armed to commit a felony – to the grand jury, which next convenes March 16.