Woman gets prison for covering up filmmaker's murder

Associated Press/March 12, 2005

Cheyenne -- A Cheyenne woman convicted of helping cover up the murder of a Chicago filmmaker will serve 24 to 34 months in prison, a judge ruled.

Julia Williams, 51, was found guilty in November of being an accessory after the fact to murder. She plans to appeal the felony conviction, according to a court transcript.

Williams was charged in February 2003, three years after police unearthed the remains of cinematographer Allen Ross in the basement of her East 17th Street home.

Ross' mysterious disappearance motivated friends to film a documentary called "Missing Allen." One of the producers, Gaylon Emerzian, said news of Williams' sentence gave her little comfort.

"It doesn't give me closure," she said from her home in Evanston, Ill. "My thing is that it doesn't satisfy me because it seems Julia is the only one who got caught in the trap."

Williams was sentenced by District Judge Peter Arnold, who also ordered her to pay a $2,500 fine and $3,500 to the public defender's office.

The case was unusual because no one has been charged in the murder. The prime suspect, Linda Greene, died in 2002 in Arkansas from natural causes.

According to prosecutor Jon Forwood, Williams told investigators she helped bury Ross's body but maintained that Greene was innocent. She said Greene's ex-husband, Denis, killed Ross and threatened her harm if she didn't help cover it up.

But investigators cleared Mr. Greene in the murder, and all evidence pointed to Linda Greene as the shooter.

During trial, Forwood argued that while Williams didn't shoot Ross and didn't see it happen, she heard the shots fired, helped bury the 42-year-old man's body, then misled police.

Forwood contended Williams was involved in a religious fringe group called the Samaritan Foundation, led by Linda Greene. He alleged Greene shot Ross when he threatened to part ways with the group not long after Greene relocated her circle from Guthrie, Okla., to Cheyenne.

During the trial, Denis Greene testified that Linda told him in 1996 that she shot Ross, and with help from Williams, buried his body in the basement.

Police looked in the basement that year but found nothing unusual. In 2000, another search revealed a shifted grave, covered with a thin coat of cement.