Dad describes Williams as sweet, caring daughter

Kim Smith

Friday, Feb. 16, 2001 | 11:41 a.m.

Steve Williams wants everyone to know the real Jessica Williams.

Speaking out while a jury deliberates his daughter's fate, Steve Williams said too many people can't see past the tragic incident that shoved the 21-year-old into the spotlight.

The reality is, he said, that Jessica is an incredibly smart, sweet and generous person.

Jessica Williams has been on trial the past two weeks on charges connected with the deaths of six teenagers.

She is accused of running off Interstate 15 and striking and killing the children as they picked up trash. Her attorney argues that she simply fell asleep but prosecutors contend the marijuana and Ecstasy she used had a great deal to do with it.

Steve Williams, a Littlefield, Ariz., resident, said the accident has just ripped his daughter apart.

"Jessica is the most gentle individual I've ever met," Williams said. "Her heart is broken. She, who has never swatted a fly, has suddenly found herself involved in a terrible accident."

She is a vegetarian because she is appalled at the idea of killing animals for food, Steve Williams said.

Jessica is the fifth of six children who were born in Southern Utah and who now range in age from 19 to 28, Williams said. She also has three step siblings and two half brothers.

Williams said that whenever the children weren't in school they were traveling. They would go to his native British Columbia, to their mother's native Mexico or abroad.

"My children have been raised internationally as a normal matter of course," Williams, a custom home builder, said.

Jessica, he said, speaks Italian, Spanish and French.

She received a year of college instruction in Mexico as part of an exchange program and was on sabbatical from an exclusive New York design school when the accident happened, Williams said.

While much has been made about the fact that Jessica spent the night before the accident working at an all-nude nightclub, Williams said it isn't that big of a deal.

Besides, he said, she only worked there a dozen times and only went topless.

Jessica spent her junior high and high school years in San Diego, where little is covered up on the beaches, Williams said. In addition, Europeans are much more open about nudity and Jessica was exposed to that.

"Jessica has always been taught to be open-minded and to be accepting of other people's ways and customs," Williams said.

Williams said he always went out of his way not to impose rigid views or rules on his children, preferring to let them experience life.

Jessica has been having a difficult time in the Clark County Detention Center, but has been keeping her mind occupied by reading religious materials, such as "Saint Augustine's Confessions" and the Bible, said her sister, Stephanie Williams.

"She goes through books like a glass of water," Stephanie Williams said.

The news reports about Jessica being on suicide watch the weekend before the trial began were blown out of proportion, Stephanie Williams said. Her sister simply decided to stop eating junk food and gave her candy bars to another inmate.

Williams said his daughter once gave away $500 of her commissary money to another inmate. When questioned about it, Jessica said she felt sorry for the woman, Steve Williams said.

There have been other media reports that have been blown out of proportion, too, Williams said. One tried to paint an ugly picture about Jessica and Sandy Murphy, who was awaiting trial at the time for the murder of gaming figure Ted Binion.

Murphy shared a cell with Jessica and Margaret Rudin, who goes on trial Feb. 26 in the slaying of her husband, Ronald.

The living arrangements were abruptly changed when Rudin complained about "inappropriate" conduct between the two younger women.

"They were hugging each other and crying," Williams said. "They were comforting each other, doing what women do."

The entire Williams family is an extremely affectionate one and that's what has made this ordeal so difficult, Stephanie Williams said.

Jessica isn't a cold person, although she appears that way on TV, both Williams's said. Her conduct in the courtroom has been dictated by her attorney and court bailiffs.

Jessica isn't even allowed to acknowledge their presence in the courtroom, they said.

The Williams's said they feel incredibly bad about the "misery and heartache and tears" the families of the victims are experiencing.

But they want everyone to know Jessica is suffering as well.

"She has to go through life knowing that whether or not she is guilty (of being impaired), she was driving the vehicle that killed six children," Steve Williams said.