Regional News: Convicted serial killer responsible for multiple Texas killings now on Oklahoma death row for 1997 murder
- Dennis McCaslin
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
McAlester, Oklahoma – William Lewis Reece, a convicted serial rapist and murderer, has been transferred back to Oklahoma from Texas, where he is now housed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester awaiting execution for the 1997 murder of 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston.
Reece, born July 1, 1959, and currently 66 years old, was previously serving life sentences in Texas for the murders of three young women: 12-year-old Laura Smither, 17-year-old Jessica Cain, and 20-year-old Kelli Cox. He pleaded guilty to those crimes in 2022 after being convicted and sentenced to death in Oklahoma in 2021.
The transfer occurred on December 29, 2025, allowing Oklahoma authorities to proceed with his death sentence while he continues to exhaust appeals
Tiffany Johnston.In July 1997, Reece abducted Tiffany Johnston, a young bride, from a car wash in Bethany, Oklahoma. He sexually assaulted and murdered her before dumping her body in a remote area west of Yukon. The case remained unsolved for nearly two decades
.The breakthrough came in 2016, when Reece-already incarcerated in Texas--confessed to Johnston's killing during interviews with a Texas Ranger investigating similar crimes against young women in Oklahoma and Texas.
DNA evidence recovered from Johnston's body confirmed his confession.
According to court records, Reece had been released from prison in 1996 just a few months before he abducted and killed Johnson.
Following his 2021 Oklahoma conviction and death sentence for first-degree murder, Reece was returned to Texas to face charges there. After receiving life sentences without parole for the three Texas murders, he has now been brought back to Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond stated: “This predator has left a trail of devastated families across two states. Tiffany Johnston was a young bride with her whole life ahead of her when he violently ended it. I am grateful to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for its work to bring back this predator so he can face the punishment a jury determined he deserves.”
Reece's appeals process is ongoing. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his conviction and death sentence in July 2025, rejecting multiple claims including those related to his confession and trial proceedings. A request for rehearing was denied in September 2025. He now has a direct appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, along with potential additional state and federal post-conviction options.
The Attorney General’s Office has committed to vigorously opposing all appeals and will seek an execution date once they are fully exhausted. No execution date has been set, and the process may take several more years, as is typical in capital cases.
Reece's crimes, spanning the 1980s and 1990s, devastated multiple families and led to the resolution of several long-cold cases through his confessions and matching evidence.
