Willie Kelly, a 67-year-old male, was working as a security guard at an A&P Supermarket on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on January 5, 1979, when his life was tragically cut short. On that day, two men, Robert Wayne Williams and his accomplice Ralph Holmes, entered the grocery store with the intent to commit a robbery. Both men donned ski masks to conceal their identities, and Williams was armed with a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun.
As customers went about their shopping, Kelly
was diligently bagging groceries. Williams and Holmes approached him, and Holmes attempted to take Kelly's pistol from its holster. As Kelly instinctively moved his hand toward his weapon, Williams shouted, 'Don't try it,' and without hesitation, fired a single, fatal shot at point-blank range, striking Kelly in the face.
Following the shooting, Williams and Holmes proceeded with the robbery. In the ensuing chaos, Holmes pistol-whipped a customer, and Williams accidentally discharged his shotgun again, injuring two other people in their feet. The two men then fled the scene. An informant later contacted the police, implicating both Williams and Holmes in the violent crime.
Robert Wayne Williams was subsequently arrested, tried, and convicted for the murder of Willie Kelly. Despite his claims that the shotgun had discharged accidentally, he was sentenced to death. On December 14, 1983, Robert Wayne Williams was executed by the state of Louisiana in the electric chair, becoming the first person to be executed in Louisiana after the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
