'Kept hitting and stabbing him': Jim Matthews' GF Nicole Guertin reveals harrowing details of when Arthur Williamson killed news anchor
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Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN: The man who is accused of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of popular Michigan radio news anchor Jim Matthews in front of his family and critically injuring his 10-year-old son with a hammer last year, is now set to stand trial on numerous felony charges.
Arthur Levan Williamson, 55, has been charged with one count of first-degree premeditated murder, one count of homicide, felony murder, two counts of assault with intent to murder, and three counts of unlawful imprisonment. As per the press release from the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, the case against Williamson on Monday, February 27, was bound to the Macomb County Circuit Court where he will be tried in connection with "a senseless, vicious attack on a family".
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This comes after a preliminary hearing featuring testimony from Matthews’ girlfriend Nicole Guertin, 35, the mother of his two children. Guertin knew the killer and was friends with him whom she called “Smokey". She informed the police that she let him into their home at 4 am while Mathews was out for work.
What happened on that day?
Guertin detailed the harrowing details of the six-hour ordeal on Monday for over an hour. She said that Williamson came to her home with crack cocaine and heroin. After the two smoked crack in the bedroom, Williamson said that he needed to fix his hubcap and went to the garage to get a hammer.
He returned later and pulled out a knife and told Guertin that he wanted to “role play". However, things took a dramatic turn when he slashed her throat with the knife and bound her wrists and ankles with zip ties following her refusal. “He said, ‘when Jim gets home, I’m going to kill him,'” Guertin testified, according to courtroom footage by Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK. “He said if I tried to warn [Jim] in any way, he’d kill the kids.”
The tragic fate of Matthews
When Guertin was allegedly tied up, her 10-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter were asleep in the house. According to her testimony, she heard Matthews come home and shut the door behind him. “I heard [Matthews] say, ‘Howdy’ and then heard him screaming, ‘What the f—?’ and screaming my name,” she told the court. “I yelled, ‘I can’t do anything. I’m tied up!'”
She said that she helplessly watched Matthews run for the bedroom while Williamson kept “hitting him and stabbing him” with the knife and hammer. “[Matthews] ended up in the bathroom and fell to the floor. He grabbed him by his head and slit his throat,” she said of Williamson. “Before he slit his throat, Jim said, ‘Oh god'.”
The preliminary exam is underway in the murder of @WWJ950 anchor Jim Matthews. Defendant slit neck of Jim’s girlfriend, tied her up in the closet, then said “when Jim comes home I’m going to kill him.” @WWJTraffic @FOX2News #MondayMorning pic.twitter.com/fPUtwywGfZ
— Charlie Langton (@charlielangton) February 27, 2023
Williamson attacked Matthews' son
Guertin reportedly said that Williamson left the bedroom after duct-taping her to the bedpost, and returned carrying her son, whose eyes, wrists, and mouth had also been duct-taped. The accused allegedly beat the child with the same hammer he used to thrash Matthews when he continued “whimpering” after Williamson told him to be quiet. “Smokey hit him in the head with a hammer,” she said, adding that she was begging him to stop. “He hit me in the head with the hammer and told me to be quiet.”
Williamson sexually assaulted Matthews' daughter
Guertin said that her daughter woke up and discovered her father's lifeless body. “I heard her say, ‘is that my dad? Did you kill my dad?'” Guertin testified. According to a report from the Macomb Daily, Guertin testified that she had been blindfolded but heard Williamson opening bottles of lube and sexually assaulting her daughter before he tried to commit suicide by overdosing on heroin.
Guertin escapes with her daughter
Guertin said she freed herself and escaped with her daughter. The 10-year-old boy was found tied up in a closet with blunt-force trauma injuries which required brain and ear surgery. Authorities later discovered Williamson shirtless in the home’s basement suffering from an apparent drug overdose. He was transported to the hospital and was then arrested.
Williamson's criminal past
Williamson had previously been convicted of breaking and entering and assaulting a police officer in 2013. He also was convicted of assault with the intent to commit murder, kidnapping, and several weapons offenses in 2002. He also has several drug offenses dating to 1993.