A man pleaded guilty to murder of a Catholic priest who was stabbed to death in his rectory in Nebraska

The person accused of fatal knife attack Catholic The priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and other charges in the December 2023 killing during a break-in at his home next to the church he served in a small town in Nebraska.

Kierre Williams changed his plea to guilty on murder, burglary and weapons charges during a routine pre-trial hearing. He will be sentenced Nov. 12 for the murder of the Rev. Stephen Gutsell, 65, in the rectory next to St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Calhoun. The murder occurred just hours before Gutsell’s celebration Mass,

Washington County Prosecutors decided early in the case not to pursue the death penalty. Investigators struggled to find any connection between Williams and the priest. The priest’s death and another unidentified murder four months earlier deeply shocked the town’s roughly 1,100 residents, about eight miles (13 kilometers) north of Omaha. missouri river,

Williams’ attorney did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

On the day of the attack, Gutsell called 911 before dawn to report that a man had broken into the rectory and was in her kitchen with a knife. A deputy who arrived at the home a few minutes later said he found Gutgesel lying near the kitchen, bleeding profusely from a knife wound. Gutsell was taken to a hospital in Omaha, where he died.

Williams did not have a weapon on him at the time, but investigators later found a broken knife with a serrated blade, stained with blood, on Gutsell’s bedroom floor.

Williams faces several serious felony charges in other states, authorities said. He was working in a meatpacking plant at the time of the murder sioux cityIowa.