2nd Barton defendant takes plea agreement

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 25, 2015

A local woman who was scheduled to go on trial for robbery and murder Monday in the 1994 death of James “Nibby” Barton has entered a plea agreement.

Shelia Walker Williams was among the four people charged in December of 2013 with robbery and murder in the cold case.

She and Eugene Walter Black were to be tried together. The pair initially declined the opportunity to enter a plea agreement, but Williams changed her mind over the weekend.

Details of the agreement have not been disclosed.

Defense attorney Trey Burgess confirmed that his client changed her plea. District Attorney Walt Merrell declined comment, citing presiding Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan’s instructions to jurors in Black’s case to avoid reading or listening to publicity about the trial.