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Thread: Chelsea Watrous Cook Sentenced to 34 Years to Life for 2018 UT Murder of Lisa Vilate Williams

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    Chelsea Watrous Cook Sentenced to 34 Years to Life for 2018 UT Murder of Lisa Vilate Williams


    Chelsea Cook



    Lisa Williams

    Utah has never executed a woman or had a woman on death row, but that could change after Sunday night's murder in suburban Salt Lake City. Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, has been charged with aggravated murder in the shooting of Lisa Vilate Williams, 26, and could face the death penalty, Deseret News reports. Police say the teacher lured ex-husband Travis Cook out of his apartment by saying she had cold medicine for one of their 3-year-twins, reports the AP. Security camera footage captured her hiding in the hallway as he walked out to the parking lot. Police say she then sneaked into the apartment, where she ended up shooting Williams, her ex-husband's new girlfriend, who had been making Christmas tree ornaments with the twins.

    Authorities say Travis Cook managed to get the gun away from his ex-wife and pin her to a wall until police arrived. Williams' mother and sister tell the AP that they feared for her safety after Cook harassed her and bullied her online for months. Public records state that Cook was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence last month after arguing with her ex-husband when he tried to pick up the twins. Court records state that she yelled "disparaging comments" about Williams, who was not present, and grabbed her ex-husband by the hair, causing him to tumble down stairs. Cook, who worked as a health and yoga teacher at a Lehi high school, is being held without bail.

    http://www.newser.com/story/268219/v...s-ex-wife.html
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    Utah teacher faces aggravated murder charges in slaying of ex's girlfriend


    A Utah teacher accused of gunning down her ex-husband's new girlfriend in front of their twin children was charged Wednesday with aggravated murder.

    Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, of Herriman, could face the death penalty for the first-degree felony in the shooting death of 26-year-old Lisa Vilate Williams.

    Cook is also charged in 3rd District Court with a first-degree felony charge of aggravated burglary and three counts of felony discharge of a firearm — one first-degree felony, one second-degree felony and one third-degree felony — as well as two counts of committing a violent offense in the presence of a child, a class B misdemeanor.

    Cook had gone to her ex-husband's home, 7690 S. Center Square, Midvale, on Nov. 25 under the pretense of dropping off cold medicine for one the 3-year-old twin sons they shared, police said. When her ex-husband walked out of his apartment to meet her in the parking lot, Cook, who was seen in security footage waiting in the hallway, slipped through the unlocked door into the apartment, according to the charges.

    Not seeing Cook in the parking lot, the ex-husband returned to his apartment where he found Cook in the living room with Williams and the children, charges state.

    Cook was told numerous times to leave but refused, according to the charges. Instead, when her ex-husband picked up the phone to call 911, she walked to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

    "Approximately 15 seconds later, Cook came out of the bathroom and walked toward her coat," charges state. Cook's ex-husband, who was standing behind her, "heard multiple gunshots and saw Cook pointing a gun at Ms. Williams."

    Cook's ex-husband grabbed the gun away from her and she went and sat down with the two children, who had witnessed the shooting, according to the charges. Once her ex-husband was back on the phone with 911, Cook moved again toward her coat.

    "Unsure if Cook had another gun hidden in her coat, (her ex-husband) pinned Cook up against the wall until officers arrived" and told the two children to go to their bedroom and lock the door, charges state.

    Williams was shot once in the chest, once in the hip and once in the back, charges state.

    Williams' mother, Tawny Williams, told the Associate Press that Cook had been harassing her daughter leading up the shooting.

    Cook was a health and yoga teacher at Skyridge High School in Lehi, according to the school's website and Cook's Facebook page. A day after the shooting, Cook's profile had been removed from the high school's website. A spokesman for the Alpine School District said Cook was immediately fired.

    Cook remains in Salt Lake County Jail without bail. An initial court date had not been scheduled Wednesday.

    https://www.deseretnews.com/article/...irlfriend.html
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    Former Utah teacher pleads guilty to killing her ex’s girlfriend as her children watched

    By Jessica Miller
    Salt Lake Tribune

    West Jordan - A former Utah high school health teacher pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated murder and other charges, admitting she shot and killed her ex-husband’s girlfriend.

    Chelsea Watrous Cook, 33, went to her ex’s apartment on Nov. 25, 2019, and fatally shot 26-year-old Lisa Vilate Williams in front of Cook’s 3-year-old twins.

    Cook pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, three firearm-related felonies and two misdemeanor charges of committing a violent offense in front of children.

    She showed little emotion through Friday’s hearing, calmly saying, “guilty” to each charge as the judge asked for her plea. She began to cry as she admitted to the charges involving violence in front of her children.

    The woman is expected to be sentenced on May 18. Aggravated murder carries a penalty of 25-years-to-life in prison, and she has agreed to have the remaining penalties run back-to-back to that sentence. How much time she actually serves behind bars, however, will be up to the parole board.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ed/ar-BB10fpfM
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    Teacher gets 34 years to life for murdering ex’s girlfriend in front of kids

    Lisa Vilate Williams was shot and killed while making Christmas ornaments with woman’s twins

    By Annie Knox
    Deseret News

    WEST JORDAN — Lisa Vilate Williams wanted to understand the woman who showed up to her job to harass her, wrote her a threatening letter and who would later become her killer.

    Williams wanted to make peace.

    “I won’t have you trying to tear me down,” Williams penned in a journal entry addressed to her boyfriend’s ex-wife, noting she had fostered a love for Chelsea Watrous Cook’s two children. “I really hope we can move past all this nonsense.” The letter was read aloud in West Jordan’s 3rd District Court on Monday, just before Cook was ordered to serve at least 34 years and up to life in the Utah State Prison for killing Williams.

    Cook, 33, pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated murder in February, part of a plea deal that spared her a possible death sentence. Williams was making Christmas ornaments with her boyfriend and Cook’s 3-year-old twins on Nov. 25, 2018, when prosecutors say Cook sneaked in and shot Williams several times.

    She had told Travis Cook she would drop off cold medicine for the children at his home in Midvale, but slipped into the apartment while he waited outside, court documents say. After he called police, she briefly went into a bathroom, then emerged, walked toward her coat and fired several rounds at Williams, shooting her in the chest, hip and back.

    Travis Cook wrestled the gun away from her and she went and sat down with the two children, who had just watched her murder Williams, according to court documents. Once her ex-husband was back on the phone with 911, Cook moved again toward her coat but he pinned her to the wall until police arrived.

    On Monday, a series of family members remembered Williams as thoughtful, hard-working and enchanted by rainstorms. A doting aunt to her nieces and nephews, she was a bank teller who loved caring for plants and had begun dating Travis Cook six months earlier.

    Her siblings and parents fought tears as they noted they will never get to plan a future trip to France with her, see her start her own family or just sit down again to chat with her over a cup of coffee.

    “Because of you, I no longer get to hear her contagious laughter bouncing around the house,” her brother Hyrum Williams said, addressing Cook. “When you took Lisa’s life, you took a light from this world.”

    Her brother Jonathan Williams described feeling torrents of shock and disbelief amid a furious anger. Growing up, he and his sister had each other’s backs, he said, recalling her radiant smile.

    “Then one day Lisa was stolen,” he said. “She was shot in a cold-blooded slaughter.”

    Before the killing, Cook had been a health and yoga teacher at Skyridge High School in Lehi. She sobbed as she apologized to Williams’ family members and talked about the trauma she caused her children.

    “I was only thinking of myself and the extreme emotional pain I was experiencing,” she said. “I’m so sorry they had to see me shoot and kill Lisa. All she ever did was love them.”

    Her defense attorney Michael Peterson said she had originally bought a gun with the intention of taking her own life. He said his client felt she was being cut off from her kids, making her so anxious and depressed that she was no longer eating and sleeping. She had stopped taking her medication and was abusing Adderall, he said.

    Her mother Lori Watrous urged leniency, describing Cook as an adoring mother who loved bringing her kids into her classroom and was experiencing “severe psychiatric distress.”

    Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Colleen Magee countered that Cook didn’t simply snap. She had long suffered from depression and had practiced driving and going to the house where she shot Williams, Magee said.

    At the request of Cook’s defense attorney, Hogan dismissed two counts of felony discharge of a firearm because the discharge was part of the murder charge. But he kept a third charge of discharging a firearm, noting a bullet from that crime had missed Williams and struck a wall, with the potential to have harmed someone else.

    Travis Cook said he plans to ask Utah legislators to pass a law in Williams’ name that will prohibit such dismissals, saying Cook deserves the full length of a sentence on each charge.

    Hogan ordered Cook to a term of 25 years to life in prison for the aggravated murder charge, six years to life for aggravated burglary, and a term of at least three and up to five years for felony discharge of a firearm. He ordered them to be served consecutively, telling Cook he was “shocked by the amount of time you spent talking about yourself” in papers submitted ahead of sentencing.

    The judge gave Cook credit for time already served in the Salt Lake County Jail on two counts of committing a violent offense in the presence of a child, a class B misdemeanor.

    https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/6/...rder-christmas

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