On December 8, 1982, the body of 21-year-old Debra Sue Carter was discovered in her apartment in Ada, Oklahoma. She had been beaten and raped.
The door to Carter’s apartment had been broken open and the residence showed signs of a struggle. The police found a washcloth forced into Carter’s mouth and a ligature around her neck. The police concluded that she had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.
The police recovered latent fingerprints, hair, and body fluids from the scene, and found a bloody fingerprint on the wall of the bedroom in which Carter’s body was located. The only latent prints identified were those of the victim and an Ada police detective who investigated the crime. In 1983, a state fingerprint expert concluded that the bloody fingerprint was not made by Carter.
At the time of the crime, Carter worked at the Coachlight Club, a bar in Ada. She had left the club in the early morning hours of December 8, 1982.
Among those who were known to frequent the club were Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson. In March 1983, a customer in the bar named Glen Gore said that Williamson was in the club in the hours before Carter left and wouldn’t leave her alone.
When the police interviewed Williamson, he denied any involvement in the crime and agreed to provide hair and saliva samples. His mother told police that he was home by 10:00 p.m. the night of the murder.
Williamson was interviewed several more times later that year by both the Ada police and agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI). He also took two polygraph examinations, both of which were inconclusive. Williamson continued to assert that he knew nothing about the crime.
From October 1984 through January 1985, Williamson was incarcerated in the Pontotoc County Jail on an unrelated bad-check charge. In August 1985, Charles W. Amos of the Mental Health Services of Southern Oklahoma determined that Williamson was not competent to stand trial on this charge, and in September 1985, the judge in that case ruled him incompetent and sent him to Eastern State Hospital.
In October 1985, Dr. R.D. Garcia, chief forensic psychiatrist at Eastern State Hospital, issued an opinion stating that Williamson was competent and returned him for trial. In February 1986, Terri Holland, who had been incarcerated in the Pontotoc County Jail while Williamson was there in 1984, reported to the Pontotoc County District Attorney that she had heard Williamson confess to the murder when they were in jail.
On May 1, 1987, Carter’s body was exhumed and another set of her fingerprints was obtained. The state fingerprint expert then changed his opinion and concluded that the bloody print found on the bedroom matched that of the victim.
On May 8, 1987, Williamson, who was 34 years old, and Fritz, who was 37 years old, were arrested. Both men were charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape, and rape by instrumentation.
In April 1988, Fritz went to trial in Pontotoc County District Court.
Dr. Fred Jordan of the Medical Examiner’s Office testified that he performed the autopsy on Carter. He said he found numerous bruises on her face, arms and body, several of which were defensive wounds. Small puncture wounds were also discovered on her nose and cheeks. The inside of her lips and mouth were cut and a semi-circular ligature mark was found on her neck. An internal examination revealed internal bruising and a small metal bottle cap inside her rectum. Dr. Jordan testified that the cause of death was suffocation as a result of the washcloth in her mouth and the ligature tightened around her neck.
Mary Long, a forensic chemist with OSBI, testified she had received samples of body fluids from approximately 20 subjects, including Fritz and Williamson. She said that Carter was blood type A, and that Fritz and Williamson were blood type O and nonsecretors. Long said the sheets from the Carter's bed contained semen and type A blood, but no antigen activity was found, indicating that the source could have been a nonsecretor. She said the vaginal swabs yielded no antigen activity.
Melvin Hett, a forensic chemist with OSBI, testified that two hairs found on the washcloth were microscopically consistent with scalp hairs from Fritz and two other hairs on the washcloth were microscopically consistent with Williamson’s hair. Hett said that two hairs found on Carter’s bedding were microscopically consistent with Williamson’s hair and that seven hairs found on the bedding were microscopically consistent with Fritz’s hair.
In addition, Hett said that two hairs found in Carter’s underwear were microscopically consistent with Fritz’s pubic hair.
OSBI analyst Jerry Peters testified that he conducted an initial fingerprint analysis on a blood stained piece of wallboard removed from the south wall of the decedent's bedroom. He was unable to match the prints discovered in the blood stain to Carter, Fritz or Williamson. He said that after Carter’s body was exhumed and a new set of prints were taken, another analysis showed that the print in the blood stain was left by Carter.
Gina Vietta testified that she and Carter both worked at the Coachlight Club and that Fritz and Williamson frequented the club. She said that about two weeks before the murder, Carter told her that she felt uncomfortable around Williamson.
Vietta also testified that at 1:30 a.m. on December 8, 1982, Carter telephoned her asking Vietta to come to Carter’s apartment and pick her up. Vietta said Carter told her someone was there and she did not feel comfortable. Vietta said she agreed to come over, but before she could leave, Carter called her back and said not to bother because she had decided to stay there.
Vietta said Carter would not say who was there, but that Carter asked her to give her a wakeup call in the morning for work. Vietta said she was late for work the next day herself and didn’t call until later. She said all she heard over the phone were muffled sounds as if someone had put their hand over the receiver.
Donna Walker, who worked at Love’s Country Store, testified that Williamson and Fritz were often in the store until December 8, 1982. She said that after that day, they both disappeared for several weeks and when they returned, they appeared unkept and unshaven, wore dirty clothes, and acted belligerent, nervous and paranoid.
Terri Holland, testified that she was an inmate of the Pontotoc County jail from October 1984 until January 1985. She testified that during that time, she overheard Williamson say that if Carter had cooperated with him he would never have had to kill her. Holland also said she heard Williamson, while on the phone with his mother, threaten to kill her like he killed Carter.
OSBI Agent Gary Rogers testified that he assisted the Ada Police Department in the criminal investigation. He testified that arrest warrants were issued for Fritz and Williamson approximately four days after the bloody print was identified as Carter’s.
Agent Rogers testified that he had interviewed Fritz on June 2, 1983, about seven months after the crime. At that time, Fritz denied knowing Carter and denied any participation in the murder. However, Rogers said that Fritz gave two different explanations for how he learned about the murder.
Gary Allen testified that he lived in the back portion of an apartment and that Fritz lived in the front part. He said that sometime on December 10, 1982, he was awakened at approximately 3:30 a.m. by two men cursing outside his window. Looking out the window he could see two men squirting themselves with the water hose. Although he could not clearly see their faces, he testified that one of the men sounded like Fritz.
Tony Vick lived in the apartment below Allen and testified that Fritz and Williamson were frequently together. Shortly after Carter’s murder, Vick said Fritz asked him what he knew about the murder. Vick said that Fritz made the same inquiry on more than one occasion and seemed overly concerned with the situation.
Mike Tenney, an employee in the county jail, testified that he had several conversations with Fritz and that on one occasion, Fritz had described a possible scenario for the murder: “Ron went to the door and broke into Carter’s apartment. And then, let’s say I went ahead and got a little. Ron got a little bit carried away and was going to teach her a lesson. She died. Let’s say it happened this way.”
Cindy McIntosh testified that in July 1987, when she was incarcerated in the Pontotoc County Jail in July 1987, Fritz and Williamson returned to the jail after separate preliminary hearings. She said she heard Fritz say he had seen the photographs of Carter’s body. McIntosh said Williamson asked if “she was still on the floor or was she on the bed.”
William Martin, the superintendent of the Noble School District testified that Fritz was employed by the school system as a science teacher and coach at the junior high school. Personnel records revealed that Fritz was absent on December 8, 1982.
James Harjo testified that while he was in jail for second-degree burglary, he met Fritz. Harjo said that after a conversation in which Harjo goaded Fritz, tears began to stream down Fritz's face and he admitted that “we didn't mean to hurt her.” Harjo said Fritz also said, “What do you think my daughter would think of me as a murderer? What do you think my daughter would think of me if I went to prison?”
Fritz testified and denied that he knew Carter or that he participated in the crime. The defense presented its own hair expert, Richard Bisbing, who testified that he examined hair evidence supplied by Hett. Bisbing’s analysis discounted the state’s hair analysis.
On April 14, 1988, the jury convicted Fritz of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Williamson went to trial immediately afterward. In his trial, jurors heard similar forensic testimony. In addition, there was testimony about comments that Williamson was said to have made.
Agent Rogers stated that he interviewed Williamson on May 9, 1987 and that Williamson said he had had a dream about killing Carter and that Fritz was with him. According to Rogers, Williamson said he went to the apartment to kill Carter because she had made him angry. Rogers said that Williamson then stopped, said, “[Y]ou cannot expect me to confess,” and added that he couldn’t hurt his family. Williamson asked for an attorney and the interview ended.
John Christian, another jail employee, testified that Williamson told him of having a dream in which he went to the club and where he met Carter. Christian said Williamson told him that later that night he went to Carter’s house “and she said, just a minute, I’m on the phone. And then, he stated that he broke the door in, and raped and killed her.”
The preliminary hearing testimony of Glen Gore, who had been declared unable to testify at the trial, was read to the jury. In that testimony, Gore said he saw both Carter and Williamson at the club during the early morning hours of December 8, 1982. Gore said he went to the bar to get a drink and Carter asked him to “rescue” her. He said she told him that Williamson was “bugging” her. Later, near closing time when the lights were being turned on, Gore said he saw Williamson talking to Carter.
The defense presented seven witnesses who also were jail employees. They all testified that they had never heard Williamson make any statements about Carter’s murder.
Williamson testified and denied killing Carter. He said he did not remember her and had never been to her apartment. He said he was at home with his mother on the night of the murder and first heard about the crime from his sister. He denied making any comments to anyone about the murder and asserted that Rogers had misunderstood him. In his dream, he was acting as an investigator, Williamson said. He said he had been a friend of Fritz since 1981.
On April 27, 1988, the jury convicted Williamson of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death.
On May 15, 1991, in separate rulings, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld both men’s convictions and sentences.
In 1994, Williamson filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In 1995, a federal judge granted the petition and ordered a new trial. The judge held that the prosecution had failed to disclose a 1983 videotape of Williamson making exculpatory statements after taking a polygraph examination as well as a tape of another suspect admitting he committed the crime. The court also found that Williamson's trial attorney had provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to develop evidence of Williamson's mental problems and failing to seek a competency hearing.
Meanwhile, Fritz contacted the Innocence Project for help. When his legal team learned that the physical evidence was going to be tested due to appeals filed by Williamson’s lawyers, they intervened to make sure that the evidence would not be totally consumed until the cases were joined so that any DNA testing would be applicable to both cases.
In March 1999, Lab Corporation of North America reported that neither Fritz nor Williamson were the source of the sperm found in the victim. Further testing proved that none of the hairs belonged to them. The profile obtained from the semen evidence was consistent with Glen Gore.
On April 15, 1999, the prosecution dismissed the charges and Fritz and Williamson were released
Fritz and Williams later filed a lawsuit and each received $500,000 from the City of Ada. The state of Oklahoma settled with each man for an undisclosed amount.
In 2001, Gore was charged with Carter’s rape and murder. By that time, he was serving a 40-year prison term for an unrelated kidnapping and assault. Gore was convicted of the charges in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Williamson died on December 4, 2004 at age 51. Fritz died on March 10, 2024 at age 74.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 02-03-2026
