A Red Wing man was sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday, one day after a jury convicted him in the premeditated killing of his girlfriend at a Hastings hotel.
Jurors deliberated for less than a day Monday before convicting Kyle Steven Williams, 35, of first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Kelly Jo Marie Kocurek, a 36-year-old mother who was found unresponsive, beaten and bloody on May 18, 2021, in a room at Coratel Inn and Suites. She was on life support for five days before dying.
Williams said Kocurek strangled herself, but a medical examiner found the woman died of asphyxiation by homicide. She had numerous traumatic head injuries attributed to physical assault, including bruises on her face, head and ear, plus fractures on both sides of her jaw.
Williams was charged with murder three months after Kocurek’s death and was arrested in Arizona.
Kyle Steven Williams (Courtesy of Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)
“He was savage in his cruelty and deliberation and determination,” Cheri Townsend, Dakota County chief deputy attorney, said Monday in the state’s closing argument.
During the five-day trial, prosecutors played a phone call Williams made to a relative 40 days before the killing. In it, Townsend said Williams “expressed how annoyed he is, how irritated he is and how he needed to ‘get rid of her.’”
Williams’ attorney, assistant public defender Stephen Taylor, told jurors those words “makes just as much sense in the context of him extricating himself from a relationship.” He said the idea that Williams wanted Kocurek away from him “doesn’t track,” since she was planning to go to drug treatment the next day.
Violent history
Jurors were told of Williams’ past domestic assaults against Kocurek and two other women. A friend testified he saw Williams punch Kocurek just days before her killing.
The victim’s mother, Lynda Dahl, testified that Williams choked Kocurek in a bedroom at Dahl’s house about a month prior. Dahl said she heard her daughter call for help and ran to the bedroom to find Kocurek crying and trembling with red marks on both sides of her neck.
Dahl went to the hotel about an hour before the killing to give Kocurek a suitcase, as she was entering a treatment program the next day. Dahl said she was upset to learn Williams also was there.
Townsend told jurors Kocurek had written in her diary that she “wanted to figure out a way to communicate in a way that didn’t get the defendant so angry all the time.” And a hotel surveillance photo showed the couple in “some sort of discussion or disagreement” right before they entered the hotel room.
Victor Froloff, assistant Ramsey County medical examiner, was emphatic that it was not suicide, Townsend said.
“No way,” she said. “Asphyxia due to ligature strangulation — a ligature, a cord, a rope, something that can be placed around the person’s neck.”
The state introduced photos showing multiple ligature marks on her neck before she died, “not just one line. There are a couple of different lines. … What does that show you about the determination to commit this offense?” Townsend said.
Williams called girlfriend’s mother
Just over an hour after seeing her daughter at the hotel, Dahl got a call from Williams, who said Kocurek was unresponsive and needed help. Dahl told him to call 911 and she immediately drove to the hotel.
Williams, who was shirtless and had blood on his hands, ran to the hotel front desk and called 911. He met officers at the front door and screamed for them to hurry. He led them to the room and told them he couldn’t wake her up and that they should “zap” her.
Police found Kocurek on the floor next to several cut cords. While they tried to revive her, Williams “continued to scream hysterically” that she had strangled herself, according to court documents.
Kelly Jo Marie Kocurek (Courtesy photo)
Dahl testified that Williams gave her multiple stories about what happened: “She hung herself. She strangled herself. She took a bunch of benzos and overdosed,” Townsend said.
Williams also gave investigators “numerous versions” of what had happened, according to court documents, but he repeatedly said she had strangled herself with a cord.
Dahl told police and also testified that her daughter had a pre-existing injury to her right arm that required her to get help with daily tasks such as putting on clothes and brushing teeth.
Townsend asked jurors to consider that injury and whether Kocurek “would be able to wrap a cord around her neck multiple times with one hand, and exert such force with one arm that she would break her own hyoid bone and cause hemorrhaging.”
Townsend reminded jurors that they saw photos of scratches on top of Williams’ head and on his torso.
“She was trying to get her life together,” Townsend said of Kocurek, a 2000 Hastings High School graduate who was living with her mother in Red Wing. “And she did fight back.”
‘He can’t hurt anybody else’
Dahl said in an interview Tuesday she’s relieved and happy knowing Williams will spend the rest of his days locked up.
“Thank God he will be gone forever,” she said. “It won’t bring my daughter back, but at least I know he can’t hurt anybody else.”
She said several jurors sat in on Williams’ sentencing and listened to the family’s victim impact statements.
“They had so much compassion,” she said. “A lot of them were crying with us. Some gave us hugs as we were leaving court. We’re just so happy that justice did get served.”
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