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, was was found guilty by a jury in August of attempted murder and malicious wounding causing serious injury — both felonies — and domestic assault with a dangerous weapon and use of a dangerous weapon in the commission of a crime, both felonies.

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

Williams has a long history of abuse – 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 kill.

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

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

“She thought she was going to die,” Edwards said. “The accused thought she had died” and left the scene.

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

Nekeidra Tucker, Williams’ attorney, asked the judge for concurrent sentences, arguing that most of Williams’ criminal history involved him drinking alcohol. Williams is not the same person who is affected by alcohol.

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

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 granted a five-year victim contact order against Williams.

The trial included the victim’s deposition in lieu of personal testimony

Robertson Lee did not appear to testify and the judge allowed Edwards to use Lee’s deposition at trial instead of her personal testimony.

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

There have been occasions in the past where a witness is not available and there is no transcript to read into the record, as in recent Curtis Padgett caseEdwards noted after Williams’ conviction in August. In the first-degree murder case, prosecutors said Padgett confessed to three witnesses but they died before the trial.

In the deposition, Robertson Lee said: “After he cut my neck, I felt my blood just drip down, it was hot, so I immediately grabbed it and then he switched hands with the knife. So now the knife is in his left hand and he’s still really close to me and he stabbed me in my left side. and I remember I couldn’t breathe and then I felt like I was going to fall, and then he turned the knife over and put it in his right hand and stabbed me on the right side and just let me fall.”

Robertson Lee’s testimony was corroborated by Williams’ own 911 call, in which he admitted to the dispatcher: “I stabbed Marquita Robertson,” Edwards said. It was also confirmed by the police investigation and medical testimony.

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

Robertson Lee had three wounds — one on her neck and two on her back, according to trial testimony. One of the wounds to her back caused a hemopneumothorax – air and blood in the chest cavity that pressed around her lungs, making it difficult for her to breathe.

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