St. Louis County – A man facing the death penalty next month for the 1998 murder of a former Post-Dispatch reporter has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that will see him serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Marcellus Williams was in court Wednesday for a hearing to establish his innocence. Instead, attorneys made a surprise announcement that Williams had agreed to plead no contest to the first-degree murder charge. Attorneys said the DNA evidence that some say exonerated Williams may be tainted.

The hearing took place about five weeks before Williams’ scheduled execution date. The defendant was responsible for the murder of Lisha Gayle. The woman was stabbed 43 times in her suburban home in August 1998. He was found guilty of the murder in a trial in 2001.

Judge Bruce Hilton accepted a proposed plea deal and overturned Williams’ original conviction. Williams then entered an “Alford plea” to the first-degree murder charge, meaning he maintains his innocence but agrees to forgo a trial and accept a recommended sentence – in this case, life in prison without parole.

Dozens of people filled Hilton’s courtroom and waited for hours while lawyers met behind closed doors to reach a settlement. Tests had shown that one of the DNA samples on the murder weapon matched that of lead investigator Edward Magee, who had worked on the original trial.

The other profile DNA did not belong to Williams, and forensics could not rule out that the case’s original prosecutor, Keith Larner, was a possible match.

The sample did not contain enough information to conclusively say that the two men were clear matches.

“The DNA evidence found did not fully support our initial conclusion,” said Matthew Jacober, special counsel to the prosecution. “Further investigation and testing showed that the evidence was not properly handled at the time of his conviction. As a result, DNA was likely removed and added between 1998 and 2001.”

The plea agreement stated that Williams’ rights had been violated by the improper handling of the evidence. For this reason, his original conviction was overturned and he entered the Alford plea.

But lawyers for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office argued the district court did not have the authority to overturn a previous criminal conviction and sentence. Bailey’s office is expected to file a brief with the Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday evening.

Jacober pointed out that Gayle’s family does not support the death penalty and does not want Williams to be executed.

Her husband, Daniel Picus, is expected to speak in court Thursday morning when Hilton Williams is sentenced to life in prison.