Background: William P. Long Jr. as he heard the guilty verdict against him on Feb. 9 (Court TV). Inset: Michelle Lewis Long (GoFundMe).
A man from Ohio has been convicted of murdering his ex-wife after previously threatening her on multiple occasions.
William P. Long Jr., aged 51, was found guilty of aggravated murder among other charges by a jury consisting of six men and six women on Monday. The verdict, reported by local news source The Review, came after Long testified earlier that morning, denying the fatal shooting of his ex-wife, 50-year-old Michelle Lewis Long, on November 29, 2023. The jury deliberated for just under 90 minutes before delivering a unanimous guilty verdict.
Judge Megan Bickerton of the Columbiana County Common Pleas Court addressed Long post-verdict, stating, “The evidence does point to you.” Long was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the charges of aggravated murder and murder, alongside additional sentencing for firearms-related offenses.
Michelle Lewis Long’s murder followed a bitter divorce in which she gained custody of their teenage son and was awarded $100,000 in spousal support, along with child support and shared properties. In a video she recorded, Long was reportedly captured saying, “I will kill you.”
On the trial’s final day, The Review detailed testimony from William Stewart, a friend of Long, who recounted Long’s chilling statement: “he was going to shoot her and let them figure it out.” Prosecutors also presented text messages exchanged between Long and his ex-wife, where Long held her responsible for their older son’s suicide, cursed her with cancer, and ominously warned, “you will get it soon.”
The Review reported that William Stewart, a friend of Long, testified on the final day of trial that Long told him “he was going to shoot her and let them figure it out.” Prosecutors also presented a series of texts between the former couple in which Long blamed his ex-wife for their older son’s suicide, wished cancer on her, and threatened her by saying, “you will get it soon.”
Long maintained that he was merely making drunken rants when he made such statements. The judge told him after the verdict was read, “They aren’t drunken rants when they become true.”
Lewis Long, who was a math and STEM teacher at Leetonia High School, came home from work on Nov. 29, 2023, went to her sister’s house, met with her divorce attorney, picked up food from Arby’s, and bought a flat-screen TV at Walmart before returning to her home at 5:45 p.m. Before going inside, she pulled up to her mailbox in her red pickup truck.
Long’s movements were tracked from the same high school where his ex-wife worked, where he picked up their son in a white pickup truck around the same time Lewis Long left the school. Video footage showed the teen getting something from his mother’s truck and bringing it over to his father’s white one. The teen left the school with his father, who brought the boy to his grandfather’s house.
Long also owned a dark blue pickup truck, which was seen traveling to Long’s girlfriend’s house after 5:17 p.m. His phone was left by the front of the house near a bush and did not register any movement until 6:13 p.m.
Investigators said that surveillance video from Lewis Long’s garage captured her pulling up to her mailbox at 5:45 p.m., the same time a dark-colored pickup truck with distinctive chrome side steps pulled up next to her. A flash was seen at the top of the frame, and as police testified, “That’s when the homicide occurred.”
The bullet that killed Lewis Long was from a .44 revolver. Long owned a Ruger .44 magnum revolver, and .44 rounds were found on a keychain for one of Long’s trucks as well as inside another one of Long’s trucks. Long claimed that he sold the gun at a gun show before the shooting.
Long’s defense team said its client had maintained his innocence from the beginning. Prosecutors told The Review, “Teachers don’t randomly get killed getting their mail in Columbiana County.”
