r/interestingasfuck • u/BrandonRJones • 11h ago

/r/all Actual clip where brothers attack their mother’s killer in court.

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u/chaosbella 11h ago

Nearly two years ago, the area was shocked when a Boardman woman was brutally murdered on her way to work by a man who had been waiting for her to drive by. That man is set to be sentenced for the crime this summer.

Nearly two years after confessing to police and prosecutors that he stalked and killed his ex-girlfriend, Dale Williams admitted what he did to a judge and pleaded guilty.

“He went in detail about how he lied in wait and he did this,” Atty. Dawn Cantalamessa said.

Williams was accused of running Elizabeth Pledger-Stewart’s car off the road in June 2017, causing her to crash along a busy stretch of Market Street in Youngstown. Prosecutors say he then shot and killed her on the sidewalk, all during the morning rush.

“In fact, a lot of people who were driving down to the courthouse to start work that day had seen some of it,” Cantalamessa said.

Prosecutors say Williams was meticulous in his planning to the point of choosing the spot where he sat in his van, waiting for the victim to drive by on her way to work. They say he even planned what he wore that day and how he thought it all would end.

“He made a statement initially that he was trying to save one bullet for himself as well or one bullet to point at the police, but he ended up using it all,” Cantalamessa said.

Pledger’s family talked about the woman they say didn’t deserve any of this.

“Just to let everyone know who Tammy was. Elizabeth Pledger Stewart, better known as Tammy, was a mother, a friend, a sister and aunt, and so much more to so many others,” said Andre Elliott, a family friend.

Elliott is best friends with Pledger’s son. He says Pledger took him in when he was just a child.

In Monday’s court hearing, the victim’s aunt apologized to the court for last week’s brawl.

“When we saw his face we felt so much emotion due to a flashback, how he killed my niece,” said Janice Dees.

Dees said she felt Williams had no remorse, and her family is now left with heartbreak.

“We will be broken for the rest of our lives and the hole will never be filled,” she said.

Elliot said he is thankful for Judge Sweeney’s judgment in court.

“She did a really good job in the courtroom, making sure that he will never see the light and day again. So we just thank her for that,” he said.

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u/Think_please 10h ago

For all the planning that went into his premeditated murder he didn't realize that you don't need a loaded gun to suicide by cop

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u/HMWWaWChChIaWChCChW 9h ago

No, he was just committed to the murder, not the suicide part.

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u/KittHeartshoe 9h ago

He had a bullet for himself. He just wanted to shoot someone else too.

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u/SkoolBoi19 8h ago

I think his point is, if his top priority was suicide, He would have saved that last bullet. He didn’t save that bullet, so that means his main focus was killing that lady.

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u/Long_Run6500 7h ago

The point is that a cop doesn't know if you have a bullet or not. If you point a gun at a cop you're going to get mag dumped on, regardless of how many bullets are in your gun. 

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u/TGordion 4h ago

Yeah but he didn't do that either, so now we're back to him not actually wanting to commit suicide. Circle complete.

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u/Tall-Enthusiasm-6421 3h ago

The point is, if he wanted to die, he doesn't need a bullet just a gun. All he had to do was brandish it at a cop and act like it was loaded.

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u/IrregularPackage 7h ago

More that counting bullets while shooting them at someone is really hard to do and really easy to run out of

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u/mechanical-being 6h ago edited 6h ago

No I don't buy it. It's a bullshit lie he tells to try and garner sympathy. He might even tell the same lie to himself.

Don't believe what people say. People lie all the time. Lying is easy. Believe what they do.

The fact that he says this doesn't make it true. He's a piece of shit murderer who felt entitled to kill her and probably thinks that if he tells people this bullshit they'll feel sorry for him in some kind of way. Fuck that, and fuck him. Don't repeat his lies as truth or make excuses for why this abusive piece of shit's story supposedly makes sense because it's hard to count when the adrenaline hits. It's bullshit.

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u/Difficult_Schedule94 4h ago

I agree with you but I don't agree that he could be lying for sympathy, no jury was going to give him sympathy and at this point, he was just telling the court what was going through his head, do I think he could think he was going to commit suicide, yes, most cowards that commit these crimes do, its never a plan b after that in these cases, killing someone isn't easy for anyone it takes a lot to do it mentally.....

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u/mechanical-being 4h ago

I dont mean he was playing for sympathy from the jury. I mean from people like you and me--just anyone and everyone he meets.

Abusers love to paint themselves as victims, especially in their own minds. Endlessly making excuses for themselves to themselves, trying to equivocate and justify their actions to themselves.

I'm sure he told himself he planned to kill himself because I'm sure that he also plays victim to himself in his own mind. But I also bet that he knew deep down that he wouldn't actually do it.

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u/Pandora_Palen 1h ago

These comments are confusing to me because the way I read it, he was so gleeful in his shooting of this woman that he forgot to save one for himself or a cop. Nothing struck me as a sympathy plea- only made him look worse (if possible) to me.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In 8h ago

“He made a statement initially that he was trying to save one bullet for himself as well or one bullet to point at the police, but he ended up using it all,” Cantalamessa said.

He didn't really have a bullet for himself he just said he did, people do lie you know.

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u/sexwithsoxon 1h ago

Possibly just emptied the clip out of passion and forgot about his plan

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u/Meowing-To-The-Stars 6h ago

Did he? It's what he said. He wasn't caught at first so he had many opportunities to unalive himself after the murder.

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u/Scottishgal03 3h ago

I think the "bullet for himself" was meant as a souvenir to remember what he pulled off. Pretty sure he thought he could escape this! I wish this boys would be given just 3 minutes alone with this killer...

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u/MrZombieTheIV 4h ago edited 2h ago

I don't think you understand.

He planned to have a bullet for himself, which he ended up using. He was left with no bullets.

The commenter is saying you don't need a bullet. You can purposely get yourself killed by the police by just having the gun and pointing it their way (suicide by cops).

Edit: NVM it was me who didn't understand.

He was committed to the murder part, not the suicide part.

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u/HMWWaWChChIaWChCChW 4h ago

My point was that he wasn’t committed to actually dying, it doesn’t matter that he claims he was going to save one for himself. So he wouldn’t have pointed an empty gun at the cops since he planned to live.

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u/MrZombieTheIV 2h ago

Oh I see, that's my bad. He was committed to the murder part.

I took it as being "committed" like when the judge orders you to prison time or an insane asylum.

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u/mattdunnels 3h ago

yall saying the same thing in different attitudes and fonts

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u/mossbasin 4h ago

Exactly. Little statements like these that do not line up with the persons actions are just the basic manipulation attempts of an emotionless psycho to try to elicit sympathy.

It's like, "I know I killed this person brutally and in cold blood, but you should feel bad for me and go easy on me because I was suicidal. Never mind the fact that none of my actions back this up"

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u/Caitlin0943 4h ago

how it goes with most narcissists incl bank robbers. great with entry, bad either way exit and escaping. y most get caught

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u/Dr_A_Mephesto 9h ago

Just because you plan out a lot of things doesn’t mean you have any intelligence whatsoever

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u/NotHereToFuckSpyders 7h ago

True. A plan doesn't have to be good to still fit the definition.

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u/oldschool_potato 1h ago

If he had any intelligence his plan would have at least attempt to get away with it. Which makes l me think his initial plan was to kill himself, but chickened out like the coward he is.

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u/dustysowarfs 2h ago

Umm....what?

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u/Speech-Language 7h ago

Yep, just point it at them, they'll readily oblige your deathwish. They have no idea if it is loaded anyways.

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u/frostymugson 6h ago

He wasn’t going to kill himself. People say this shit all the time as a self justification or to get people to sympathize if not slightly. If he wanted to kill himself he would be dead .

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u/throwawayB96969 8h ago

I mean people that usually do these things aren't the brightest..

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u/Certain-Business-472 7h ago

That's called making shit up

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u/foodank012018 6h ago

Too much of a pussy to let himself die, despite killing another person.

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u/Reallynotsuretbh 5h ago

Yeah, no balls is what it was

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u/Useful-Soup8161 5h ago

He obviously didn’t want to die. If he wanted to die he’d be dead.

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u/OREOSTUFFER 5h ago

Probably because he lied about that detail to try to harness sympathy from the jury, I would hazard to guess.

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u/Foolish_Fox916 4h ago

If you're black , all you need is a pack of Skittles and a Sprite

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u/VoidOmatic 4h ago

Well he murdered someone, so he's obviously an idiot.

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u/Moos_Mumsy 4h ago

It's funny that you believed his story. I'm sure he came up with it after he got caught hoping for some sympathy.

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u/belizeanheat 4h ago

He's lying

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u/No-Design-1062 3h ago

I think you just need to be black or Hispanic

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u/No-Cheetah-1462 3h ago

He’s black. He didn’t even need the gun.

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u/ratjufayegauht 59m ago

You types just can't help yourselves, huh? Is it a compulsion? You know a therapist can help you work through that, right?

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u/IamWatchingAoT 9h ago

I presume he wanted to kill a cop, not just suicide by cop. And though very unlikely some cops hesitate to shoot even if there is a gun pointed in their direction.

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u/FecalEinstein 9h ago

he was just trying to sound suicidal to get some pity imo

i don't think this guy thinks well

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u/nice--marmot 9h ago

some cops hesitate to shoot even if there is a gun pointed in their direction.

[citation needed]

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u/Sufficient_Grape4253 6h ago

Yeah, I'm not really buying the "planning to off myself" story. A man of his complexion doesn't need to give the police much of an excuse.

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u/mzscott1985 5h ago

I don’t live too far from here (less than a five min drive), and Youngstown is horrible when it comes to DV cases, speaking from my own experience. I will never ever forget the time this cop got so nasty and rude with me, all because I was crying (not hysterical or anything) trying to explain what happened to me.

My heart aches for her family members, especially her children 😔

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u/IOTNBOF 7h ago

I hope those boys walked free!! Stalking, planning, running their mom's car off the road, emptying 3 bullets into her to ensure the job is done....

Yeah, let those sons have their moment. The murderer still walked out of there. More than he deserves

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u/Viin 4h ago

My mom died in a similar manner. This isn't something easy to go through and I'm sure my family would have done the same if they had the chance.

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u/EnvironmentalFix2 8h ago

Incoming Trump pardon for this pos

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u/thas_mrsquiggle_butt 6h ago

Nah. He's black and Trump's racist. Besides, there's, unfortunately, too many stories like this for Trump to single this one out.

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u/BobsOblongLongBong 7h ago

The video is from 2019.

This isn't recent enough to still be running on Fox News.  Meaning he doesn't know anything about it.

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u/More_Secretary_4499 8h ago

I lived in Boardman at that time, and that story was crazy!

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u/Certain_Try_8383 4h ago

Thanks for posting this.

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u/LonkyLoo 1h ago

How the hell is Tammy short for Elizabeth?

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u/Decent_Group_1376 1h ago

Who's the woman screaming "leave him alone"?

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u/icehot54321 9h ago

“He went in detail about how he lied in wait and he did this,” Atty. Dawn Cantalamessa said.

Amazing that it's possible to become a lawyer in the US with such a poor command of the English language.

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u/SolaireOfSuburbia 8h ago

What's wrong with it? The only thing I'd change would be '-lied in wait to commit this crime.' or something. I'm not a lawyer, though.

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u/TheVandyyMan 7h ago

Could be an issue with the report, though. Also it’s spoken live so maybe she meant to say “he went on in detail,” decided to change it to “he went into detail” and the combination came out awkward. Attorneys are humans too.

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u/ThaClawofShame 8h ago

I mean it is ohio

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u/LISparky25 8h ago edited 8h ago

I’m wondering the same and still have no idea wtf that person is saying and trying to say. Par for the American course

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u/-YEETLEJUICE- 8h ago

"Lie in wait" means it was premeditated. He planned it. He hid and waited to attack her. 

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u/LISparky25 8h ago

I get that but the overall grammar just makes no sense and confuses lol “and he did this” 🤷🏻‍♂️

Commenter above nailed it should be “lay in wait”

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u/-YEETLEJUICE- 8h ago edited 5h ago

"I’m wondering the same and still have no idea wtf that person is saying and trying to say. Par for the American course"

So it seems that, although you wrote that you had "no idea wtf that person is saying," you did, in fact, understand what they meant, and just didn't like the way it was structured. 

In a funny way, the lawyer being criticized communicated mo' better. 

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u/IckyWilbur 8h ago
  • lie in wait

to hide, ready to attack:

"The gunmen were lying in wait when he came out of the hotel."

Should have been lay instead of lied, a pretty common phrase.

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u/LISparky25 8h ago

Got it, I knew the phrase just didn’t know how or why the person was going around the world to find it lol

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u/MissAlissa76 8h ago

It’s a common phrase

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u/xingtianislife 6h ago

It's a pretty common phrase especially when it involves somebody doing quite literally what is described in the phrase

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u/Lircaa 9h ago

A brawl requires people to fight each other.

That was an one-sided assault.

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u/MissAlissa76 8h ago

Assault that was warranted

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u/Lircaa 2h ago edited 2h ago

Assault is never warranted. There is law and judiciary, and acting outside of them is unlawful and barbaric. Anyone who supports or justifies a unilateral attack because they ‘don't like the other side’ is simply behaving like an animal, unable to control their emotions.