A D.C. man pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder while armed in the June 2012 death of the owner of a Northeast deli.
Steven Williams, 46, took a plea deal in which the government will ask for no more than 28 years in prison and the defendant will seek no fewer than 20 years of incarceration. The charge carries a statutory maximum of 40 years in prison.
The victim, Hae Soon Lim, 64, was found June 14 at her business, Grace’s Deli, in the 700 block of H Street NE. Lim died from one gunshot wound that entered through the back of her neck.
An empty brown handgun holster was found next to Lim’s body, and DNA recovered from it matched Williams. Williams’s DNA also was recovered from an empty cash register located inside the restaurant, behind the counter.
Video from a D.C. police surveillance camera about a block away showed that after Lim parked her car in front of the deli at about 5:25 a.m., a single person can be seen crossing H Street rapidly on foot, moving toward the front entrance of the restaurant, where the person interacted with someone believed to be Lim.
The suspect was charged in November 2012.