Woman has boyfriend kill her stepdad for life insurance payout, Florida cops say

Olivia Lloyd, The Charlotte ObserverCharlotte Observer

A woman increased her stepdad’s life insurance policy to $750,000, then 16 days later had her boyfriend kill him, Florida authorities said.

A jury convicted 48-year-old Perry Stanley of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the State Attorney’s Office for the Seventh Judicial Circuit announced June 26.

His girlfriend at the time, 36-year-old Myesha Williams, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a firearm in January, Volusia County records show. She awaits sentencing.

Williams’ attorney told McClatchy News that Williams testified on behalf of the state twice during Stanley’s trial. Stanley’s attorney didn’t respond to comment June 27.

The conviction comes more than six years after the couple was accused of conspiring to kill 59-year-old Terrence Gibson for money, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.

In 2018, Williams took out a $25,000 life insurance policy on her stepfather, who helped raise her and was married to Williams’ mother before she died, officers with the DeLand Police Department wrote in an arrest affidavit.

When Williams took out the policy, she told the insurance agent not to worry about adding Gibson’s daughter to the plan, listing herself as the sole beneficiary, according to investigators who obtained a recording of the conversation.

But 16 days before her stepfather was shot four times and killed, she called the insurance agency again, police said.

She wanted to increase her stepdad’s policy from $25,000 to $750,000, according to police.

She asked what the payout would be if her stepdad died in an accident versus if he was killed, and how she would make her claim, police said. The insurance agent told her if someone hurt him, the payout would be $150,000, according to investigators.

Prosecutors said Stanley impersonated Gibson on the phone to confirm the policy details.

The day Gibson died, Williams told detectives she picked up her stepdad and they visited her mom’s grave, then she brought him to a vacant field known as a hangout spot called the Watering Hole, police said.

Not long after, witnesses said a man wearing all black and a ski mask walked up to Gibson and shot him multiple times in the back before fleeing, police said.

A K-9 tracked the scent, and investigators found a dropped cell phone in the sand next to a set of footprints, according to police.

Photos on the phone led police to believe it belonged to Perry Stanley. Phone records show that seven minutes before Gibson was killed, Stanley called Williams and spoke to her for three minutes, according to prosecutors and police.

Williams said her boyfriend was named Tim, and when shown a photo of Stanley, she said that wasn’t Tim, according to police. Stanley also initially denied knowing Williams, detectives said.

Phone records contradicted that story, showing the pair was frequently in the same location in the 10-day period leading up to Gibson’s death, according to police.

But during an interview nearly eight months after the killing, Williams changed her story, and when shown a photo of Stanley again, she said that was her boyfriend she had been referring to as Tim, investigators said.

She said in the September 2019 interview that the day Gibson died at the Watering Hole, she was driving away from the area when she saw Stanley walk up behind Gibson with a gun, then she heard shots, according to police.

Police said they learned the couple met up after Gibson was killed, and Stanley burned his clothes. A few days later, Williams called the insurance company to tell them her stepfather had been killed, according to investigators.

In October 2020, a grand jury indicted both of them on first-degree murder charges.

DeLand is in Volusia County, about a 40-mile drive north from Orlando.

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