A man charged with a fatal stabbing in early June in Houston is to appear in court in October, a circuit judge ruled Thursday.
Adam T. Reams, 38, is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse. He is held in the Texas County Jail without bond.
Reams still does not have a lawyer. He earlier was turned down after being found ineligible for a public defender. A judge ruled last Thursday Reams must attend a 1 p.m. Oct. 12 session to determine the status of obtaining an attorney.
According to a report, multiple officers were dispatched at about 1:07 a.m. June 2 regarding a report of a stabbing at a Broadway Street residence. Upon arrival, the officers observed a man lying dead on the floor in a bedroom with stab wounds to the face, neck and torso, and significant amounts of blood were seen in several locations around the house.
The victim was identified as Billy J. Hayes, Jr., 30, of Houston.
Two women and a man who were at the scene were transported for questioning at the Texas County Justice Center in Houston, and multiple others were also interrogated during the investigation.
Reams was questioned in jail and claimed he hadn’t seen Hayes in at least three weeks.
Officers noted in the report that Reams had been arrested earlier in the evening on a domestic assault charge and had fled the scene before being found and apprehended. When he was arrested, Reams reportedly had a large amount of blood on his hands, arms and torso and was taken to the county jail. As the stabbing investigation unfolded, police knew the suspect was already in jail.
The morning after the crime a bloody knife matching a description provided by another person was found on Airport Road near Reams’ Houston residence on West Chestnut Street. Reams’ red bicycle was also found hidden in tall weeds in a field near Houston Municipal Airport. The bike reportedly had blood on its handlebars.