FORT CALHOUN, Neb. — A man accused of fatally stabbing a Catholic priest inside his rectory in December 2023 has pleaded guilty to murder, burglary, and weapons charges, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Kierre Williams entered the plea during a pretrial hearing and will be sentenced on Nov. 12 for the killing of Rev. Stephen Gutgsell, 65, who served at St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Calhoun. The attack happened just hours before the priest was scheduled to celebrate Mass.
Prosecutors in Washington County had decided not to pursue the death penalty, and investigators have found no known connection between Williams and Gutgsell. The priest’s killing, along with another unexplained death months earlier, deeply unsettled the small town of about 1,100 residents north of Omaha.
According to investigators, Gutgsell called 911 before dawn, reporting that a man had broken into his rectory and was in his kitchen holding a knife. Deputies arrived within minutes and found the priest bleeding heavily near the kitchen. He was taken to an Omaha hospital, where he later died.
Authorities said Williams didn’t have a weapon when arrested, but officers found a broken serrated knife covered in blood inside Gutgsell’s bedroom.
Williams, who has prior felony convictions in other states, was employed at a meatpacking plant in Sioux City, Iowa, at the time of the murder.
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