Telford inmate pleads not guilty in cellmate death
NEW BOSTON, Texas —A Texas prison inmate charged with capital murder for allegedly killing his cellmate in 2017 pleaded not guilty during arraignment Friday at Bowie County Courthouse.
Justin Jerrell Williams, 29, entered his plea before 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison, according to court records.
Pretrial hearings have been set for Aug. 9, Oct. 4 and Dec. 6, according to court records.
Williams, an inmate at the Telford Unit, was indicted in 2020. He had been scheduled for arraignments in 2023 and earlier this year but refused to leave his cell for the hearing, according to court documents.
Williams was serving a 50-year sentence for murder he received in 2016 in Harris County, Texas, when Pete Armando Ayala was found unresponsive in their cell in the early morning of June 25, 2017.
Ayala was serving a 40-year term for murder out of Henderson County.
Ayala, 29, was covered in blood and appeared to have been restrained with pieces of fabric torn from a sheet, according to court records. He died the following day at a Texarkana hospital.
Williams allegedly told prison investigators that he wanted to fight Ayala because of some “issues” between them but that Ayala did not want to fight.
According to TDCJ’S website, Williams will be eligible for parole in the Harris County murder case Dec. 28, 2039, and will have completely served his time in that case on Dec. 26, 2064.
Williams’s court-appointed attorney is Jeff Harrelson, according to court records.