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Man's claim of flawed evidence is rejected

Killer can appeal ruling on ballistics in 1995 capital murder conviction

A federal judge has dismissed a Houston man's claim that flawed ballistics evidence led to his 1995 capital murder conviction.

However, in a 130-page opinion this week, U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas granted Nanon Williams permission to appeal her decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Williams, 30, will escape the death penalty in any case because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ban on the execution of inmates who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes. Williams was 17 in 1992, when Adonis Collier was shot to death during a drug deal in Hermann Park.

Houston Police Department firearms examiner Robert Baldwin testified in Williams' trial that Collier was shot in the head with a .25-caliber bullet — the caliber of Williams' gun.

After re-examining the evidence, however, Baldwin changed his theory six years later and said the bullet actually was a .22-caliber fired from a co-defendant's gun, which had not been tested previously.

State District Judge Joan Campbell then recommended a new trial for Williams, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected that suggestion.

Williams appealed to the federal courts, alleging that his attorney was ineffective for failing to thoroughly investigate the ballistics evidence. He also contended that prosecutors knew the ballistics evidence was faulty.

Atlas held that there was evidence Williams participated in the slaying, even if he didn't fire the .25-caliber pistol, because of indications that another weapon also was used.

The case is one of three in which recent court rulings have questioned the work of the HPD ballistics lab.

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