Testimony Begins in Ragans Murder Trial

By Amber Lester Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Robin Ragans testified Monday that she spent hours on the phone with Allen Dale Williams on the night of Nov. 14, 2009, trying to piece together whether her husband had been sleeping with Williams’ estranged wife.

Ragans wiped tears from her eyes as she testified at the murder trial against Williams, accused of beating her husband of 24 years, Thomas Ragans, to death on the morning of Nov. 15. For more than six hours on the opening day of the trial, lawyers tried to piece together the details surrounding Tommy Ragans’ death. Williams entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and waived his right to a jury trial. Substitute Circuit Court Judge Thomas Nance is expected to rule later this week.

A timeline began to emerge through the testimonies of 11 prosecution witnesses. Around 6 p.m. on Nov. 14, Allen Williams drove to the home of his estranged wife, Christy Williams, to drop off their children. He noticed Tommy Ragans sitting in a red Chevy truck parked at the house. He rammed his vehicle into the truck, got out and punched the windshield with his fist.

After Tommy Ragans had left, Williams confronted Christy and accused her of having an affair. She denied it and he left, returning to the home of his cousin, Scott Williams. He spent the night in the garage, calling mutual acquaintances and eventually, Robin Ragans, whom he did not know. Phone records and Robin Ragans' testimony indicate they spoke about a dozen times over the course of the night.

Just after 6 a.m. the next day, Robin let out her dogs and came back into her Dandy home, leaving the door unlocked. Soon after, she heard an unfamiliar man yelling her name from downstairs. When she reached the foyer, she found Williams standing there, wearing no shirt, sweatpants and tennis shoes.

Tommy Ragans had also reached the foyer, and within minutes, the men were throwing punches. They ended up in the kitchen, where Tommy Ragans smashed a coffee pot against Williams’ head, which began to bleed profusely. Robin Ragans testified that Williams demanded that her husband "be a man" and admit to the affair; Tommy Ragans insisted, "You got it wrong."

Finally, Robin Ragans testified, her husband admitted to sleeping with Christy Williams a few times. The admission prompted Allen Williams to demand to know where his children were when that happened.

The altercation continued verbally until Robin opened the door, asking Williams to leave. Somehow, the trio tumbled down a flight of approximately 12 porch steps onto the driveway. Williams then stood up and kicked Tommy in the face and head, before running toward neighbor Ronald Byrd’s apartment, leaving a blood trail behind him.

He entered the apartment, where he convinced Byrd’s ex-wife Barbara Higginbotham - whose children he knew - to give him a ride to his mother’s house several miles away. He turned himself in to the York County Sheriff’s Office three hours later.

Ragans died at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News later that day. Since then, Williams has been held without bond at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.

York County Commonwealth's Attorney Eileen Addison tried to prove Williams intended to kill Ragans when he went to his home on Nov. 15. In her opening statement, she said Williams spent hours drinking and making calls on Nov. 14, becoming increasingly intoxicated and demonstrating mood swings. She also said Williams’ last audible words on a recorded 911 call were, “I’m going to kill you, Tommy. You’re not strong enough for me.”

“We have ample evidence his actions were deliberate,” Addison said. “He did exactly what he intended to do.”

Defense lawyer Tim Clancy argued his defendant was not guilty of the charge of intent to kill. He said it would be different if Williams were charged with breaking and entering with intent of assault. He said Williams entered the Ragans home and yelled for Robin, adding he did not open the door with stealth or possessing a weapon.

“We know there was a fight. We know of substantial injuries, and we are sorry,” Clancy said. “[But] this was not deliberate, not willful, not premeditation.”

Addison first called Christy Williams to the stand. She testified she filed for separation from Allen Williams in the fall of 2007. After a brief reconciliation, she filed for legal separation again in the fall of 2008 and received custody of their two children. In November of that year, she entered into an intimate relationship with Ragans.

Robin Ragans later testified she had suspicions of an affair between her husband and Williams. She had hired a private investigator, but did not come up with any conclusive evidence. She called the private investigator again on the afternoon of Nov. 14 because her husband had been staying out late or not coming home at all. “I wanted to know the truth,” she said.

When asked why she denied the affair during her confrontation with Allen, Christy Williams said she was “scared to death.”

Over the phone on Nov. 14, Williams told Robin Ragans he would spare her husband’s life because he had children. He also said that if he came to Dandy, “it would be bad and he’d end up going to jail.” Tommy Ragans, he said, was "not worth it."

During the trial, Clancy pointed out several instances when Williams had easy access to weapons. He spent time at the homes of cousins Steve and Scott Williams, both of whom had unlocked gun cases with ammunition. Clancy also asked Robin if she had knives in her kitchen, where much of the altercation between Williams and Ragans took place. She said knives were kept on the counter.

Clancy also pressed Robin Ragans to explain how the trio tumbled down the porch stairs. She testified that in her initial statement, she said she wasn’t sure how they all fell. Later, she wrote out a six-page statement that said, “I think he was so mad, I think he charged Tommy.” After later hearing a 911 tape, she believed she could hear him scream and charge.

After some pushing from Clancy, Ragans said that as of Monday, she was not sure how they landed at the bottom of the steps. “I know we went down the stairs thanks to Allen,” she said.

During her testimony, Higginbotham indicated Williams asked her to slow down as she exited her long driveway next to the Ragans’ home. He asked, “Do you see Tommy moving? Do you think he could be dead?” She said no, she didn’t think he could be dead.

The trial will continue today, likely with testimony from the medical examiner. The trial will begin at 9 a.m. at the York-Poquoson Circuit Court in historic Yorktown.