Background: News footage shows Charles Lee Dawson (far right) with his attorney upon receiving his guilty verdict for first-degree murder on July 31 (WVVA). Inset: Keri Michelle Billings (Cravens-Shires Funeral Home).
A man from West Virginia will spend his lifetime behind bars for killing a woman in front of her two daughters, after a jury advised the judge to deny him any leniency.
Charles Lee Dawson, aged 45, was handed a life sentence without the chance for parole following his conviction for first-degree murder on July 31. As detailed in a press release from Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney Brian K. Cochran, obtained by local Fox and CBS station WVNS, Dawson fatally shot 32-year-old Keri Michelle Billings in the head with an AR-15 rifle right before her two young daughters on October 9, 2023.
According to Cochran, Dawson told Billings ominously that “this is the end game for her, and that he was going to split her head” prior to shooting her with the rifle.
WVVA, a local NBC station, reported live from the courtroom when Dawson was pronounced guilty of first-degree murder, as well as other charges including kidnapping, firearm use during a crime, reckless endangerment, and two cases of severe child neglect. According to WVVA, the jury needed only an hour and a half to decide. Dawson broke down in tears upon receiving the judgment.
Cochran mentioned that on August 1, during a separate phase of the trial, the jury suggested that the judge refuse parole for Dawson on his first-degree murder conviction, effectively eliminating any possibility of future release. Additionally, Dawson was sentenced to additional decades in prison on various other convictions, such as receiving 30 years for kidnapping Billings’ daughters.
The two girls, whose ages were not made available, watched their mother being gunned down and took the stand as witnesses during Dawson’s trial. Cochran praised the girls for being “smart enough to record the incident, because they knew what was about to happen, because Dawson said what he was going to do.”
While the two girls were in the same room, Dawson told Billings “that she’s getting the death sentence, that this is the end game for her, and that he was going to split her head, right before aiming the AR-15 at her head and firing.”
WVVA reported that Dawson’s defense tried to claim that he did not have a “plan” to kill Billings on the day of the murder and should be convicted of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Cochran explained, “It is never fun to have a child have to testify in cases like this, but it is a requirement because every defendant has a right to confront each witness against him, but the kids both did great, and just simply told the truth.”
