In the summer of 1998, a week of unimaginable violence in a quiet Lakewood, Colorado, townhouse claimed the life of Angela Fite, a 28-year-old mother, and two other women. Angela, a trained dental assistant, was described by those who knew her as fun, beautiful, and a good mother to her two young children, a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter.
She had been in an eight-year relationship with the father of her children, Mike Kelly, and though they had recently separated, he held onto hope for a reconciliation.
Angela's life took a fatal turn when she became involved with a man named William Lee Neal, a charismatic and manipulative con artist who went by the names Cody, Wild Bill Cody, and Charmin' Billy. Neal, who presented himself as a wealthy bounty hunter, had entered Angela's life just a few months before her death, telling her stories and turning her against her ex-partner. He was also in relationships with his other victims, Rebecca Lynn Holberton, 44, and Candace Anita Walters, 48.
The horror unfolded inside Rebecca Holberton's townhouse. Between June 30 and July 5, 1998, Neal murdered all three women. He first killed Rebecca on June 30, followed by Candace on July 2 or 3. On the evening of July 5, Neal lured Angela to the home, possibly under the pretense of a housewarming for a home they would share. There, he had another woman he had recently met held captive. This 22-year-old witness was bound, gagged, and blindfolded, tied to a mattress on the floor.
In a scene of profound brutality, Neal duct-taped Angela to a chair. The captive witness was forced to watch as Neal then bludgeoned Angela to death with a 7.5-pound splitting maul, the same weapon he had used on his other victims. After murdering Angela, Neal raped the witness at gunpoint. The bodies of the three women were discovered on July 8, 1998, after Neal left his hostages with instructions to contact the police. He was arrested that same evening and confessed to the murders less than a week later.
William Lee Neal pleaded guilty in February 1999 to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, and one count of menacing. Acting as his own attorney during the penalty phase, he claimed to have found God. The Fite family released a statement saying, "We are offended by those who presume to manipulate the word of God to justify a request for mercy when such godless acts were clearly committed in the complete absence of mercy."
On September 29, 1999, a three-judge panel sentenced Neal to death for each of the three murders. Family and friends of the victims let out a collective "Yes!" as the sentence was read. Angela's father, Wayne Fite, spoke of the family's enduring pain. "It is not really going to be over for us for a very long time," he said. "The anger is less, but we will never recover from this." In 2003, however, Neal's death sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the state's death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional. William Lee Neal remains incarcerated at the Colorado State Penitentiary.
