CLEVELAND — Friday was a pivotal day in the courtroom for the man accused of murdering his fiancée. We’ve been following the case since Amanda Williams was shot to death in her Warrensville Heights bedroom in October 2023.
Friday, her fiancé Tirell Edwards took the stand in his defense, claiming Williams lunged at him with a knife that night. He told the jury when he shot her, he had no choice.
Edwards is charged with murder and domestic violence. His testimony began with a look back at his six-year relationship with Williams. They’d gotten engaged and were planning their wedding.
“We was taking pre-marital counseling, which we had just finished up,” he testified.
When defense attorney Andy Petropouleas asked how he would describe the relationship, Edwards answered, “I’d describe it as being pretty good.”
On Oct. 9, 2023, Edwards and Williams had been arguing in text messages that were shared with the court. He’d accused her of lying to him about missing his texts; he testified she had his phone service disconnected.
By that evening, when they were both home, Edwards said he had put the day’s disagreements behind him. But, he claimed, Williams had not. She asked him to leave their home.
“Something just wasn’t right to me, with her,” he testified.
He’d later tell police her eyes were red and bloodshot, like she had a demon in her eyes. He testified he held his Bible to her chest, which she knocked away. He did not leave the house, as she asked, and said that’s when she issued a warning.
“Then she tells me, ‘ok if you do stay here tonight, you’re gonna have to sleep with one eye open,'” he said.
That’s when Edwards claimed Williams reached toward his nightstand, where he kept two firearms. He took the guns and moved them to his car a moment; the prosecution said he could have also grabbed his work badge and his clothes and left the house. Instead, he went back inside, unconcerned with Williams’ warning.
Back inside, he heard her on the phone and said it sounded like she was calling the police. We’d later learn she hadn’t dialed 911; she called 9221. That’s when he testified; he decided it was time to pack his things and get out.
“Then she comes upstairs with a knife,” he said.
Edwards pulled his phone out and started recording. In the first of three videos, you can hear Edwards ask Williams, “You gonna stab me?” She responds, “I’m going to defend myself.”
Edwards said at this point, Williams rushed down the hall wielding the knife, but his cell phone video shows she set it down on a ledge in the hallway. He struggled to recall exactly what happened and told the jury she must have gone back for it at some point.
They were both in the bedroom when the argument escalated. Edwards said Williams was holding the knife when she snatched his phone from him. He said he thought he had been stabbed and jumped across the bed. That’s where the third gun came into play.
“When I looked, she was stabbing the screen on the phone,” he said. “I remember her coming towards me to her side of the bed so I reached under the mattress where she keep her firearm and I remember getting up and I thought that I shot her.”
When asked why he pulled the trigger, Edwards testified, “Because she was coming at me with the knife."
Under cross-examination, the details changed. The third cell phone video he recorded that night was played for the court. In it, there’s not much clear to see, but you can hear what sounds like the moment Williams stabbed the phone, followed seconds later by the sound of gunshots. Edwards can be seen in the video standing up on the side of the room where he found the gun.
Prosecuting attorney Kevin Filiatraut asked, “Did you hear those six sounds? That was her hitting the phone, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Edwards.
“You’ve got her gun already, correct?”
“Correct,” Edwards answered.
He said he pulled the trigger four or five times while also jumping back to avoid her alleged knife attack. After he said Williams wasn’t moving, he thought she was already dead. That’s when her adult daughter, Tyler Williams, came up to see what was going on. Edwards said she tried to get to her mother, but he wouldn’t let her in and instead sent her back downstairs to call 911. At this point in court, he became emotional.
“Why not let Tyler go to her mother and try to help her?” Filiatraut asked.
"I didn’t want Tyler to be traumatized,” Edwards said, tearing up on the stand. “She kept trying to get over there, and I didn’t want her to see her mom like that.”
Tyler has already taken the stand in this trial. She told the jury Edwards locked her out of the room where her mother had been shot.
“I was not able to help my mom, hold her, nothing. Because he wouldn’t let me,” she said.
