A convicted serial rapist and murderer is waiting to be executed in Oklahoma after his actions devastated several families.
Sixty-three-year-old William Lewis Reece was in Texas serving life sentences for murdering a young girl, a teenage girl, and a 20-year-old woman, Fox 25 reported Monday.
In press release Monday, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office announced Reece had been returned to Oklahoma to face execution at the state penitentiary in McAlester.
“In 2021, Reece was convicted and sentenced to death by an Oklahoma County jury for the murder of 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston in July 1997. Reece abducted Johnston from a car wash in Bethany, sexually assaulted and killed her, then dumped her body in a remote location west of Yukon,” the news release continued:
The case remained unsolved for nearly two decades until 2016, when Reece confessed to killing Johnston during interviews with a Texas Ranger about murdering and sexually assaulting young women in Oklahoma and Texas. DNA evidence from Johnston’s body confirmed Reece’s confession.
After his conviction and death sentence in Oklahoma, Reece returned to Texas in 2022, where he pled guilty to the murders of 12-year-old Laura Smither, 17-year-old Jessica Cain and 20-year-old Kelli Cox. He received life sentences for all three murders.
Reece spent 10 years in prison for raping two women in 1986 and upon his release moved to Harris County. He later murdered Smither in April of 1997 after kidnapping her while she was jogging in Friendswood. Her body was eventually found in a retention pond, Click 2 Houston reported Tuesday.
“In May of 1997, Reece kidnapped Sandra Sapaugh from a convenience store in Webster. However, Sapaugh was able to escape by jumping from Reece’s truck as it barreled down the Gulf Freeway,” the outlet said.
A few months later, he kidnapped Cox at a Denton gas station and killed her, then killed Johnston after kidnapping her from an Oklahoma car wash. He killed Cain as she was driving home in Galveston County.
Drummond’s office said the murderer is exhausting the appeals of his death sentence but they will oppose them and request an execution date.
“This predator has left a trail of devastated families across two states. Tiffany Johnston was a young bride with her whole life ahead of her when he violently ended it,” Drummond said. “I am grateful to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for its work to bring back this predator so he can face the punishment a jury determined he deserves.”