May 18, 2021 was the last time family members saw Kelly Jo Marie Kocurek before her final five days were spent clinging to life. At that time, her boyfriend, Kyle Steven Williams was the only suspect in the death of Kocurek. Kocurek passed away on May 23, 2021, and at the end of May the Hastings community was shocked to learn of an alleged murder that took place within the city.
Several events took place surrounding this tragic event, Williams fled the state, was caught in Arizona and ultimately sent back for the investigation and eventual trial. His defense team questioned his mental capacity to stand trial. Ultimately, he was found competent, and the trial proceeded. The trial itself took one week with closing arguments taking place on Friday, Nov. 15. Monday, Nov. 18, the jury made their decision, guilty on all charges, and Williams was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Timeline of events
Kocurek was staying at the Coratel Inn and Suites on Vermillion Street for a few days waiting to go to an inpatient treatment facility. She called her mother to bring her a suitcase she had left at home. When her mother arrived at the hotel, Kocurek was accompanied by Williams, her boyfriend.
After an exchange where Kocurek’s mother expressed her desire that Williams not be there, the mother left. On the drive home, she received a call from Williams that Kocurek was not breathing, and she rushed back to be with her daughter. Less than a week later, Kocurek was pronounced dead. Her mother reported seeing Kocurek lying motionless in the hospital leading up to her death looking like she had been severely beaten repeatedly with several bruises on her face and neck.
A lengthy autopsy was performed by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner determined that Kocurek’s death was a homicide, and she died from asphyxiation. Notes from the Medical Examiner included details of several injuries that could not be self-inflicted, including facial fractures and facial hemorrhages and hemorrhages in both eyes.
During the initial investigation, witnesses at the hotel reported hearing “wrestling or fighting” before Williams was seen running in the hallway with blood on him.
According to the criminal complaint, Williams had given several different accounts of the events to investigators but had always stuck with the story that Kocurek strangled herself with a cord.
Williams had left the state before charges were filed, and the charge of second-degree murder was issued in October of 2021. The warrant for Williams’s arrest was executed in Arizona and he was returned to Minnesota to stand trial for the homicide of Kocurek.
In March of 2023, Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena announced the indictment of Williams, 34, of Red Wing in connection with the death of Kocurek. June of 2024, Williams had been found competent to stand trial after his attorneys dropped their objections to a competency report filed in the case in January earlier this year. Williams’ jury trial had previously been scheduled for late February and early March of this year but was put on hold when a psychiatric evaluation was requested. With those pieces in place, a jury trial was placed on the docket to begin Nov. 4 at 9 a.m.
The jury selection started the week of Nov. 4, and the trial started Monday, Nov. 11. The presentation of evidence and testimonies concluded by Nov. 15 and the closing arguments took place on Friday, Nov. 15 with the jury deliberations and the reading of the jury’s findings along with sentencing taking place on Monday, Nov. 18. The Dakota County Attorney’s Office released this statement on Nov. 19.
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Kyle Steven Williams, 35, was found guilty by a jury for the death of 36-year-old Kelly Jo Marie Kocurek. Williams was found guilty on all four counts — first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse with past pattern of domestic abuse, premeditated first-degree murder, intentional second-degree murder and first-degree assault great bodily harm.
The jury deliberated for less than a day before they reached the verdict, following a five-day trial. The Honorable Dannia Edwards sentenced Williams to a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a mandatory term for the conviction of premeditated first-degree murder.
On May 18, 2021, officers from the Hastings Police Department responded to a medical call at a local hotel. Officers found Kocurek on the floor in a room unresponsive with marks around her neck and her face was bloodied and bruised. Multiple cords were lying next to her body. Kocurek was transported to a hospital and remained in a coma until her death five days later.
During the investigation, Williams told officers that Kocurek had tried to strangle herself and he had to cut the cords from around her neck. However, according to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office, it was determined Kocurek’s death was a homicide, and she died as a result of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation.
The medical examiner also noted that several of her injuries were inconsistent of a self-inflicted injury. Kocurek also suffered numerous traumatic head injuries attributed to physical assault including bruises on her face, head and ear, and bilateral fractures of her jaw.
“Today justice was rightly served as Mr. Williams will now be held accountable for his continued acts of domestic abuse that culminated in the violent murder of Kelly,” said Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena. “While no outcome can ever fully heal the wounds of this heartbreaking incident, I hope today’s verdict brings some peace and comfort to Kelly’s family and loved ones.”
County Attorney Keena thanked the Hastings Police Department and the Minnesota BCA for their assistance in the investigation and Chief Deputy Cheri Townsend and Assistant County Attorney Kelly Rodgers who prosecuted this case.
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“The trial was crazy and sad and brought up tons of emotions that we kind of set aside for a small period of time,” said Kocurek’s Sister-in-law Deanna Dahl. “So, to see all the evidence, it was compelling. I mean, this was definitely not a ‘who done it’ kind of case. All of the evidence pointed towards Kyle Williams, and obviously the jury felt the same way, because it took them less than a day to convict him of first-degree murder, which was phenomenal.”
The evidence presented came from multiple sources, sources that took time to gather and to have experts verify.
“I do want to say Patrick Dietrich, the detective on the case… Wow! What an amazing job he did,” said Dahl. “When you're on the outside and you're just normal civilian, you don't understand what goes into detective work until you see it laid out in front of you.”
Dahl then expressed how when it takes the length of time it took to gather all the details, there is always the wandering thought of “what are they doing? What is taking so long?” as if the officials involved are just sitting around not working on the case.
“But they are,” added Dahl. “When you are not familiar with the system, you’re full of this anger and you just don’t know how and who to put it on to. You just want somebody to blame and when you don’t see justice taking place it is very maddening, but behind closed doors, it is taking place and what they are doing is protecting Kelly and the integrity of the case and us family and friends. It is not about us during that time, it is about Kelly, and those detectives, the coroners, the BCA, it was all done with integrity, and we could not be more thankful for that. Officer Dietrich did an amazing job. Prosecutors Cheri Townsend and Kelly Rodgers, amazing women who controlled the trial from start to finish. Every ounce of evidence they had was backed up by professionals and they had videos from the scene, it was all just phenomenal. You could tell that they fell in love with Kelly, and I think the jury did too. You could see that when they were listening to the victim statements, they cried right with us. I know it is not an easy choice to convict someone for the rest of their life, but they knew they had no choice with Kyle Williams.”
According to Dahl, during the trial, Williams showed little emotion other than smugness as he observed the evidence against him, as if he were proud of what he had done.
“When he saw Kelly's body laying lifeless and bloody on the police camera or when the when the coroner put up his autopsy pictures, there was no emotion, remorse, sadness from Kyle Williams, none at all. When his victims and other victims came up and gave their testimonies, he stared at them. When they put up pictures of what he had done to those girls, he looked at those pictures once again with almost satisfaction of what he had done. I mean, it was sick,” explained Dahl. “There were two times I saw reactions out of him, and one was when my mother-in-law spoke, and it was chilling, because she talked about how Kelly took the cigarettes from her, and she specifically tells him that he's not Kelly's boss, and he don't get to tell Kelly what to do. His neck to the top of his head, you could see, was pure red. He was so angry at the fact that she was telling him that he was not the boss of Kelly. It was crazy. The other reaction that he had was when the verdict came through. He looked back at my husband and the rest of us, and shrugged his shoulders like, ‘oh well, no big deal.’”
That was just before an intense exchange happened between the family and Williams and the bailiffs stepped in to prevent any issues.
With the life without parole sentence, it is unclear where Williams will be remanded too. There are 11 state prisons, three federal prisons and one federal prison camp. Oak Parks Heights is the only maximum-security, level five prison in the state, so that would be the logical destination. Stillwater, Rush City and St. Cloud are considered “Close” level security, defined as close custody or level four, so there is a possibility of one of those three locations being in play depending on the risk assed by the judicial system.
Three and a half years after the murder of Kelly Jo Kocurek, the family and the greater area community can breathe a collective sigh of relief, Kyle Williams can never abuse another person, but that does not mean there is closure, and it certainly does not mean the work is done.
“You are under the presumption that once you get justice and this monster goes to jail, that you're all of a sudden going to have this awakening of closure, and I will say that's so untrue. It does not bring closure to our family, because at the end of the day, it doesn't bring Kelly back. Does it shine a little light in this big thing of darkness? Yes, it does, but it does not bring closure to the family,” said Dahl.
Dahl and the family want to use this horrific event as a way to honor the memory of Kocurek and to prevent this from happening to others in the future. They are going to work with the City of Hastings Parks department to get a memorial bench for her, they have a spot in mind in a park here in Hastings and they are going to research domestic violence laws to see if they can make improvements at the legal level and get Kocurek’s name attached to that.
For now, the family is going to take the time they need to continue healing knowing that the difficulty of waiting for the trial to be over is finally here.
Domestic abuse victims account for roughly one quarter of violent crimes in Minnesota. It 2023, nearly 53,000 survivors received domestic violence services. Also in 2023, Minnesota had 40 domestic violence homicides, the highest in 30 years. The victims included 26 women, three men and 11 bystanders. Help is available. If you or someone you know is in a dangerous situation, please call the MN 24-hour Domestic Violence Crisis Line at 1-866-233-1111 or visit https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/Publications/DomesticAbuse.asp to get the help and protection you need.