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Serial killer sentenced to die for 1997 murder of young newlywed

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    • William Lewis Reece also admitted to killing three other females

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    Brad Hunter Confessed serial killer William Lewis Reece has been sentenced to death. Confessed serial killer William Lewis Reece has been sentenced to death. Photo by HANDOUT /OBI Article content

    William Lewis Reece stayed mum.

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    No, he had nothing to say to the family of the teenage newlywed he brutally murdered in 1997.

    Oklahoma County District Judge Susan Stallings, however, had plenty to say to the 62-year-old confessed serial killer.

    “There’s an old saying in the law, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied,'” Stallings told Reece. “Justice will not be delayed any longer in this case.

    “I sentence you to death.”

    Reece was convicted in June of the July 26, 1997 murder of Tiffany Johnston, 19.

    Tiffany Johnston had only been married three months when she was murdered. Tiffany Johnston had only been married three months when she was murdered. Photo by HANDOUT /OBI

    Prosecutors said Reece kidnapped the new bride from a car wash in Bethany, Okla. and forced her into a horse trailer, where she was strangled to death. Her naked body was discovered dumped in tall grass along the side of a dirt road.

    She had been married just three months.

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    DNA linked the killer to Johnston in 2016.

    When he was finally caught, Reece started singing to detectives and admitted to also murdering three others in his native Texas.

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    He admitted killing Laura Smither, 12, in a Houston suburb in 1997; Kelli Cox, 20, a student at the University of North Texas in Denton, also in 1997, and Jessica Cain, 17, who was last seen in Texas on Aug. 17, 1997. Her remains were found almost 20 years later.

    The Oklahoman reports that the doomed killer’s lawyer is planning to appeal the death sentence.

    “He’s just a serial killer,” Johnston’s mom, Kathy Dobry told The Oklahoman. “He doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

    Reece can forget about forgiveness from Dobry.

    “I believe in God and all that but I will never forgive him,” the grieving mother said. “And I’m glad people can. But not this momma.”

    Suburban Houston police chief Robert Wieners said Reece was a “calculating” monster who was overconfident.

    “I don’t want to call him clever, but you know, he was definitely calculating,” Wieners told ABC 13. “He really kind of thought he was smarter than everybody else.”

    bhunter@postmedia.com

    @HunterTOSun

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