DUBLIN — A former Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy whose career ended the day he killed his girlfriend and her husband has finally revealed how he’ll defend against double murder charges: by asking jurors for a lesser conviction.
At the start of the murder trial for 26-year-old Devin Williams Jr., his defense attorney did not contest that Williams walked into the Dublin home of Maria and Benison Tran and shot them both dead with his service pistol, in front of their 14-year-old son and other family members. But the defense will argue that Williams did so while “shattered” and “stunned” after learning Maria had hidden her ongoing relationship with her husband from Williams.
Devin Williams Jr. is accused of fatally shooting Maria and Benison Tran in their Dublin home in 2022. (Alameda County Sheriff’s Office)
“He found out Maria Tran, a woman who professed to love him, whom he had dreamed of marrying…had been untruthful,” defense lawyer Matthew Dalton said in his opening statement to jurors Tuesday morning. Dalton said the killings happened in “the heat of passion,” a legal term which, if accepted by jurors, will necessitate convictions on charges of double manslaughter, not murder, for both victims.
Williams has been in jail for nearly two years to the day of the start of his murder trial. On Sept. 6, 2022, he clocked out of a shift as a guard at Santa Rita Jail, took off his uniform shirt but kept his service pistol on him, traveled to Maria and Tran’s Colebrook Avenue home, and killed the couple in front of four family members.
The shooting was captured by an audio recording of Benison Tran’s 911 call, and by a home security camera. The audio was horrifying — the victims’ family can be heard wailing and screaming in terror as the shots ring out, and afterwards as Williams scurried back to his car.
“What you’re hearing on that call is the defendant murdering two people execution-style in their own home,” Deputy District Attorney Ted McGarver told jurors in his opening statement.
For prosecutors, the case is a simple act of revenge by a jealous and obsessive boyfriend, who became “controlling” and “possessive” at the drop of the hat. McGarver said Williams was well-aware of the unorthodox relationship he was getting himself into, where Maria Tran lived and slept with her husband in an “unhappy” marriage, while dating, texting, and going on romantic vacations with Williams throughout the seven months they were together.
But Williams threatening to come to Maria’s home — or actually coming — was nothing new to the tumultuous relationship, McGarver told jurors. He would frequently threatened to show up to the home, and one month before the double homicide, he did come there at 3:30 a.m., until two Dublin cops showed up and convinced him to leave.
“You’re gonna make me do something stupid,” Williams texted Maria Tran in May 2022, just one example prosecutors cited of him threatening to “break in,” promising to show up to her house “before” the cops got there if she called them, or demanding she “calm me down,” in texts that were frequently written in all capital letters.
The defense didn’t contest that their relationship was volatile. Dalton said that Williams and Maria Tran met in February 2022, when Williams was stationed at a hospital where Tran worked. The two quickly began referring to each other as “future husband” and “future wife” and Williams made arrangements to move near her Dublin home within 48 hours of the killings.
Dalton also revealed that in February 2022, Williams was assaulted at work and suffered a head injury with long-lasting repercussions. He plans to call two doctors who will testify Williams had a “traumatic brain injury” that changed his behavior, leading to mood changes and difficulty managing emotions.
Williams had been led to believe that Benison and Maria Tran were separated, not living together, and that the only reason Williams couldn’t move in with Tran was because she didn’t want to introduce him to her son. In fact, said Dalton, Tran was living a “secret life” by maintaining two relationships and trying to keep each partner ignorant of the other.
Tran and Williams had been on vacations together, as underscored by this chilling detail: Tran’s brother was able to easily identify the weapon Williams used to kill his sister and brother-in-law, because Williams had allowed him to fire it during a vacation they went on together in Florida several weeks earlier.
Williams showed up to the Trans’ home shortly after midnight on Sept. 7, and tried to call Maria Tran and coax her outside. When that failed, he walked through a wide open door, which was ajar with a large fan running, due to an intense heatwave that had hit the Bay Area that week.
He walked up to the bedroom on the second floor, and was confronted by the realization that Maria and Benison Tran were still together, Dalton said. He added that Maria’s brother told police Williams was “trembling,” and “quivering” and accused Maria of cheating.
But McGarver said that Williams had spent the day questioning Maria about her levels of intimacy with her husband, and indicated he was willing to “compromise.” As their conversation progressed, Williams became more and more insecure, at one point stating, “I just want love.” Then he sent another text roughly two hours before the killings, which McGarver said will help him prove that this is a case of premeditated murder.
“I’m about to snap,” Williams wrote.