Murder trial was delayed 9 years

Ex-boxer jailed since 2009 in killing of wife, stepson

William Medei walked into the Hollywood police department on March 18, 2009, looking for a friendly face. He found one — a lieutenant he knew from the time Medei spent at local gyms teaching teenagers to box.

But Medei had something weightier to discuss. “This is the most important thing that has ever happened to me in my life,” he told Lt. Richard Allen.

“My wife and my son are dead in a trailer.”

Medei, now 61, has never denied stabbing Renee Bader, 42, and her son Joshua, 14, in their Okomo Park trailer on March 17, 2009. But he has always maintained it was in self-defense. A jury will ultimately have to decide whether the slayings were justified — but nine years after the mother and son were found with dozens of stab wounds, the case still has no trial date.

Medei’s case has gone through two prosecutors, three judges and eight defense lawyers.

Renee Bader’s mother, Carolyn Walker, of Davie, and her brother, Bill Smrekar, of Texas, declined to discuss the case this week, but they made it clear they are frustrated and that they don’t intend to remain silent if the 10th anniversary passes with no resolution.

Based on court records, Medei’s mental health is the major holdup. Nearly a dozen competency hearings have been held since 2011, and while Medei has never been officially determined to be incompetent, the issue continues to resurface.

But even for a case with mental health issues, Medei’s is taking an unusual amount of time to come to trial.

Part of it has to do with improvements in the quality of testing in the time that has passed, said Medei’s lawyer, John O’Donnell. Brain scans showing damage from years of amateur and professional boxing now provide a medical basis for a renewed defense claim that Medei was legally insane at the time of the fatal confrontation, O’Donnell said.

Insanity was first proposed as a defense by a previous defense lawyer in 2011. But a year later Medei dropped that claim and was in court claiming he was in his right mind, and justified, at the time of the killings.

“I didn’t have time to think,” he said during a hearing asking a judge to dismiss the case under the “stand your ground” law. “I don’t even know who it is that’s doing this. I twist the hands. The knife fell in the doorway…I was choking her. I was choking her bad.”

The hearing in September 2012 appeared to give then-prosecutor Tom Coleman all he needed to secure a conviction, even if Medei were telling the truth about what happened that night.

Medei is a former middleweight boxer from Schenectady, N.Y., who went by the nickname “The Italian Hammer.” He retired from the sport in 2004 with a record of 16 wins, 11 losses and three draws. Most of his wins were by knockout, as were most of his losses.

He had been married and divorced three times, with one child, according to court records. He met Bader in 2008 at Grace Christian Center in Hollywood, which her mother said she had attended regularly. He moved in with Bader and her son and started working as a security guard for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The relationship was volatile almost from the start — Bader ordered Medei to move out in late December, but by February 2008 they were married.

“I told her, ‘Renee, if he ever hits you, you’re a goner’ — especially since he used to box,” her mother said in a 2009 interview.

Divorce was already a likelihood the following month.

But Medei appeared to adore Joshua Bader, friends said after the stabbings. Even when he told police what happened, he referred to the child as his son.

Joshua, 85-pounds to Medei’s 225, attacked from behind after his mother was disarmed, Medei testified at his 2012 hearing. The teenager knocked the couple off balance, and they fell onto their bed. Then Joshua went for the knife, Medei said. “I twisted the knife out of his hand and it ended up in my hand,” he said.

Medei’s admission was fatal to his “stand your ground” claim. With no weapon, neither his wife nor his son could be considered a threat to the imposing figure before them. The prosecutor pounced. “Do you understand what you’re telling me?” Coleman asked.

As Medei continued testifying, he made more admissions.

“Look at the victims,” he said, referring to crime scene photos. “There had to be rage there.”

The possibility of an insanity defense resurfaced in early 2016.

A trial had been set to begin in May before Judge Porter and would have lasted about three weeks, according to court documents.

But Medei continued to receive updated mental health evaluations, with O’Donnell seeking more updated testing to bolster the insanity defense. On the eve of jury selection, prosecutor Tony Loe filed for access to the latest mental health records that prosecutors would need to answer the defense claims.

The trial stalled again, and no new date has been set. Medei remains in jail without bond.

Medei