ST. LOUIS (AP) An execution date is set for this summer for a man convicted in the 1998 fatal stabbing of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a burglary. The Missouri Supreme Court has set August 22 for the execution by injection of Marcellus Williams for the slaying of Gayle. Williams was burglarizing Gayle’s University City home when he discovered that Gayle was in the shower. He took a knife from the kitchen and attacked her when she came downstairs, stabbing her more than 20 times before stealing a laptop computer and other items.
Gayle was a reporter for the Post-Dispatch for 11 years before leaving the paper in 1992.