{"id":240279,"date":"2026-04-21T12:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240279\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:37:15","slug":"man-found-guilty-of-murder-in-2021-new-years-day-stabbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240279\/","title":{"rendered":"Man found guilty of murder in 2021 New Year\u2019s Day stabbing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A man has been found guilty in a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2021\/01\/04\/tallahassee-police-arrest-suspect-in-fatal-new-years-day-stabbing\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2021\/01\/04\/tallahassee-police-arrest-suspect-in-fatal-new-years-day-stabbing\/\"> 2021 fatal New Year\u2019s Day stabbing<\/a>, according to the State Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">A jury found Michael Lagrane guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery in the death of 60-year-old Lawrence Williams, after deliberating for around eight hours.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Michael Lagrane\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z3CLGG7LMNHC7PPRELACGIKV4U.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Michael Lagrane(Leon County Jail)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Law enforcement responded to an apartment complex on Lake Avenue on the afternoon of Jan. 1 where they found Williams, who died from stab wounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">According to the State Attorney\u2019s office, police also found items belonging to Williams were missing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Detectives identified Lagrane as a suspect When a search of Lagrane\u2019s home was searched as part of the investigation and officers found a watch belonging to Williams and clothes that appeared to be blood stained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">According to court documents, FDLE tested the clothes for DNA and found Williams blood on a jacket and pair of sneakers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\"> More on crime in our area: <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">LaGrane testified during the trial, saying the watch found in his home did belong to Williams, but it wasn\u2019t stolen. He claimed Williams had given it to him to fix a problem with it, the State Attorney\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">He testified that he was at Williams\u2019 home the night of the stabbing, but left before midnight. He said he returned later and the door was open and Williams was already dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">LaGrane will be sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/04\/20\/man-found-guilty-murder-2021-new-years-day-stabbing\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A man has been found guilty in a 2021 fatal New Year\u2019s Day stabbing,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[265,28,106320,106321,6272,232,234,233,106322],"class_list":["post-240279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-crime","tag-florida","tag-man-found-guilty","tag-new-years-day-stabbing","tag-state-attorney","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tallahassee-stabbing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}