Man gets 60 years for daytime attack downtown
By Steven Kreytak
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 10:41 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012
Despite an Austin police investigation that a prosecutor and defense lawyer both described as sloppy, a Travis County jury on Wednesday found a man guilty of aggravated assault in a midday attack on a downtown office worker last year.
Billy Gene Faircloth, 45, who has convictions dating to the 1980s for crimes such as burglary and theft, was later sentenced to 60 years in prison. He'll be eligible for parole after 30 years.
The end to his trial in state District Judge Mike Lynch's court came exactly one year after Faircloth's crime shook up workers at the 100 Congress Avenue office building. His victim was Kathy McWilliams, a clerical worker for law firm Jackson Walker.
McWilliams, 62, testified Wednesday that, while returning from a lunch break, she was walking in the building's underground garage when she saw a shadow on the wall that looked like someone running at her with a brick. "The next thing I knew, I was being hit in the back of the head," she said.
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