CEDAR RAPIDS — A judge sentenced a Cedar Rapids man to 25 years in prison Friday for trying to kill his ex-girlfriend by slitting her throat and stabbing her twice in the back during an argument in 2022.

Nickie Ray Williams, 51, had found guilty by a jury in August of attempted murder and malicious wounding causing serious bodily harm – both felonies – as well as domestic abuse with a dangerous weapon and use of a dangerous weapon in the commission of a felony, both aggravated misdemeanors.

Williams faced up to 39 years in prison, but 6th Judicial District Judge Christopher Bruns gave him concurrent sentences for a total of 25 years because of his age, past problems and because the judge believed he was not a risk of recidivism .

Williams has a long history of assaults – 13 in 30 years – one of which involved the same victim, Marquita Robertson Lee, 38, as in this case, and a previous victim was a minor child whom he threatened to will kill

In that case, there was a no-contact order against Williams.

Linn County Assistant State’s Attorney Molly Edwards, during the hearing, argued for consecutive sentences because of the “extreme violence” of the July 21, 2022, murder. The cut to Robertson Lee’s throat exposed his larynx, and the stab wound was life-threatening. penetrated his lung. She spent 45 days in the hospital and had to have her left lung drained. Other medical care after her hospitalization, she noted.

“She thought she was going to die,” Edwards said. “The defendant thought he was dead” and left the scene.

Edwards said that after the no-contact order was in place, Williams threatened to kill the woman.

Nekeidra Tucker, Williams’ attorney, asked the judge for concurrent sentences, arguing that most of Williams’ criminal history involved his drinking. Williams is not the same person under the influence of alcohol.

Tucker said Williams, when he was young, went to college to play basketball and when his girlfriend got pregnant, he dropped out to help support her and start a family. He always helped others – friends and neighbors – whenever they needed help, even paying their bills and making sure they had a place to stay

Williams declined to make a statement during the sentencing.

Robertson Lee did not attend the sentencing to make a victim impact statement.

Judge Bruns said Williams must serve 70 percent of the 25 years before he is eligible for parole. He also imposed a five-year no-contact period for the victim against Williams.

The trial included victim depositions in lieu of in-person testimony

Robertson Lee did not appear to testify, and the judge allowed Edwards to to use Lee’s deposition at trial instead of her testifying in person.

Using a deposition at trial is a “fairly rare circumstance” in criminal cases because most witnesses are available and often not all witnesses have a deposition before trial, Edwards previously said.

There have been times in the past when a witness is not available and there is no transcript to read on the record, such as in the recent Curtis Padgett caseEdwards noted following Williams’ sentencing in August. In that first-degree murder case, prosecutors said Padgett testified three witnesses, but they died before the trial.

In his deposition, Robertson Lee said: “After he cut my throat, I felt my blood just drip, it was warm, so I grabbed him instantly and then he switched hands with the knife. So now the knife is in his left hand and he’s still very close to me and he stabbed me in the left side. And I remember I couldn’t breathe and then I felt like I was going to fall, but he was holding me up. Then he turned the knife and put it in his right hand and stabbed me in the right side and let me fall.”

Robertson Lee’s deposition testimony was corroborated by Williams’ own 911 call, where he confessed to the dispatcher, “I stabbed Marquita Robertson,” Edwards said. It was also corroborated by the police investigation and medical testimony.

“Police responded to the scene and found her lying in the doorway of the residence with actively bleeding wounds,” Edwards said. “A knife with blood on it was on the ground by her feet.”

Robertson Lee had three wounds — one to the neck and two to the back, according to trial testimony. One of the wounds to her back caused a hemopneumothorax – air and blood in the chest cavity putting pressure around her lungs, causing her to have trouble breathing.

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