Background: William P. Long Jr. as he heard the guilty verdict against him on Feb. 9 (Court TV). Inset: Michelle Lewis Long (GoFundMe).
An Ohio man who denied killing his ex-wife after making several threats against her has been found guilty of murder.
William P. Long Jr., 51, was convicted of aggravated murder and all other counts against him by a jury of six men and six women on Monday. According to courtroom reporting by local news outlet The Review, Long testified the same morning that he did not fatally shoot his ex-wife, 50-year-old Michelle Lewis Long, on Nov. 29, 2023. After the case was handed to the jury, it took less than an hour and a half to return a unanimous guilty verdict.
Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton told Long after the verdict, “The evidence does point to you.” She sentenced Long to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the aggravated murder and murder charges in addition to time for the firearms charges he was also convicted of.
Leading up to Lewis Long”s murder, she and Long had gone through a contentious divorce that resulted in Lewis Long getting custody of their teenage son, $100,000 in spousal support, child support, and properties the former couple had both owned. In a video recorded by Lewis Long, Long reportedly told her, “I will kill you.”
WATCH the verdict on Court TV: OH v. William Long: Deadly Divorce Murder Trial
The Review reported that William Stewart, a friend of Long, testified on the final day of trial that Long told him “he was going to shoot her and let them figure it out.” Prosecutors also presented a series of texts between the former couple in which Long blamed his ex-wife for their older son’s suicide, wished cancer on her, and threatened her by saying, “you will get it soon.”
Long maintained that he was merely making drunken rants when he made such statements. The judge told him after the verdict was read, “They aren’t drunken rants when they become true.”
Lewis Long, who was a math and STEM teacher at Leetonia High School, came home from work on Nov. 29, 2023, went to her sister’s house, met with her divorce attorney, picked up food from Arby’s, and bought a flat-screen TV at Walmart before returning to her home at 5:45 p.m. Before going inside, she pulled up to her mailbox in her red pickup truck.
Long’s movements were tracked from the same high school where his ex-wife worked, where he picked up their son in a white pickup truck around the same time Lewis Long left the school. Video footage showed the teen getting something from his mother’s truck and bringing it over to his father’s white one. The teen left the school with his father, who brought the boy to his grandfather’s house.
Long also owned a dark blue pickup truck, which was seen traveling to Long’s girlfriend’s house after 5:17 p.m. His phone was left by the front of the house near a bush and did not register any movement until 6:13 p.m.
Investigators said that surveillance video from Lewis Long’s garage captured her pulling up to her mailbox at 5:45 p.m., the same time a dark-colored pickup truck with distinctive chrome side steps pulled up next to her. A flash was seen at the top of the frame, and as police testified, “That’s when the homicide occurred.”
The bullet that killed Lewis Long was from a .44 revolver. Long owned a Ruger .44 magnum revolver, and .44 rounds were found on a keychain for one of Long’s trucks as well as inside another one of Long’s trucks. Long claimed that he sold the gun at a gun show before the shooting.
Long’s defense team said its client had maintained his innocence from the beginning. Prosecutors told The Review, “Teachers don’t randomly get killed getting their mail in Columbiana County.”
