Update: Former Elgin man who murdered, sexually assaulted toddler is released from prison

A 47-year-old man convicted in the 1997 murder and sexual assault of an Elgin toddler was released from prison Thursday and is expected to live in the Crystal Lake area, officials say.

Cayce Williams, formerly of Elgin, served 24 years in prison and the Kane County jail in connection with the death of 20-month-old Quortney Kley. Williams’ release landed on the 24-year-anniversary of Quortney’s death and was met with an outpouring of objections by the girl’s parents, Jesse Kley and Margaret “Gretta” Morgan.

“You think that some of those pains go away, and they don’t,” Morgan said. “You’re going to live with them for a little bit, and they’ll show up out of nowhere.”

Williams is registered with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office as a child murderer and sexual predator. His new address is listed at 360 Briarwood Drive, Crystal Lake, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections sex offender registration database.

The local school district was notified of Williams’ criminal convictions and his registered address, McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim said in a news release issued Thursday.

“I understand the resident’s concerns with Williams’ release into our community,” Prim said. “I want to reassure the residents that we proactively and continually verify all of our registered sexual offender’s information to ensure that they comply with the Illinois Sexual Offender Registration Act.”

One of the last memories Morgan has of her daughter is sliding on a toddler-sized shoe. The mother was teaching Quortney, a “solid” and “stubborn” chubby-cheeked redhead, to say new words like “feet” and “socks,” she said.

“I’d tickle her feet, tell her to go get her shoes,” Morgan said. “That’s kind of where we were at the night she died. That’s one of the last things I remember doing is getting her shoes on.”

Williams and Morgan lived together at the time of Quortney’s death. The couple had dated in high school and rekindled their relationship between 1995 and 1996 when Morgan and Quortney’s father divorced.

“During the course of the relationship, [Cayce Williams] basically said he had been stalking me the whole time,” Morgan said. “... This is kind of one of the most terrifying parts of him being out.”

Looking back on the relationship, Morgan can point to moments that feel odd in hindsight, she said.

“He was jealous of the girls,” Morgan said. “He was jealous that they weren’t his, and we would fight about that.”

Williams told Elgin police during a recorded interview after his arrest that he inappropriately touched Quortney before squeezing her head so hard she stopped breathing, according to a 2003 Daily Herald report.

Williams eventually took Quortney’s body to Provena St. Joseph’s Hospital and told police she suffocated in a plastic bag. He was taken into police custody that evening, the Daily Herald reported at the time.

In 2006, nearly 10 years after his arrest, Williams accepted a deal from the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office. In exchange for Williams’ guilty pleas to first-degree murder and predatory criminal sexual assault, prosecutors dismiss additional counts of the same charges, and Williams was sentenced to 48 years in prison.

Prosecutors approached Morgan before the plea deal went through and asked what she thought an appropriate sentence might be, she said. But no amount of time would make up for Quortney’s life.

“They asked me for a number that I would be satisfied with in this case, and there is no number,” Morgan said.

Although she knew it was possible Williams could be released from prison after 24 years, Morgan was under the impression she would have the chance to argue against his release before a parole board, she said.

But Williams’ release was not the result of an Illinois Prisoner Review Board vote, the board’s chief legal counsel Jason Sweat said Thursday.

“Mr. Williams was given his sentence in 2006, and by all indications he has served the term of imprisonment as ordered by the court in that sentence,” Sweat said

At the time of Williams’ sentencing, he had already served just more than nine years in the county jail. That time was credited toward his total prison sentence, of which he was required to serve 50%.

Illinois’ truth-in-sentencing laws at the time required anyone convicted of first-degree murder to serve 100% of their prison term. That law was overturned in 1999, however, when the Illinois Supreme Court ruled the law was passed in violation of a constitutional ban against covering more than one issue in a bill, according to a 1999 Associated Press report.

About 2,600 prisoners were sentenced under the overturned law, according to the AP.

Illinois truth-in-sentencing guidelines now require those convicted of first-degree murder to serve 100% of their prison sentence. Prisoners convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault must complete at least 85% of their term.

Williams is subject to certain restrictions as he completes a three-year period of mandatory supervised release. Those include receiving sex-offender counseling and abstaining from contact with Quortney’s family, Morgan said.

Williams has been evaluated and determined not to be a sexually violent person under Illinois law, Morgan said.

If Williams completes his mandatory supervised release term without violating any conditions, his sentence will be considered complete.

“I do know that at some point in my life I’m going to turn around and see him standing there,” Morgan said. “I’ll turn around, and he’ll be there.”

Quortney’s death has continued to trigger anxiety for the girl’s mother and surviving family.

Nightmares of following her daughter’s cries of “Mama!” in the dark keep Morgan up at night, while the mother’s older daughter has been forced to grow up without her baby sister.

There are happy memories, too. Quortney was just beginning to show her personality – a stubborn and determined one, Morgan said. Almost two years old, Quortney was the spitting image of her mother with fire-engine red hair and blue eyes. She donned the family’s signature “lop-sided dimple, her father’s nose and forehead.”

“If she wanted to do it she was going to do it and you weren’t going to stop her,” Morgan said.

Now, 24 years to the day of Quortney’s death, Morgan has no words for Williams. Shortly after his arrest, Williams sent Morgan a letter that she still has not read in its entirety. She may never, Morgan said.

“He pretty much had admitted to what he had done. ... I don’t even think I read the whole letter, and I think I called the police and had them take it,” she said.

Morgan received a copy of the letter again on Wednesday but hasn’t brought herself to look at it.

“Honestly, I don’t know that I’ll ever read it,” she said. “I always think that I’ll find some answer, and there really isn’t [one].”

Quortney’s father, Jesse Kley, couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

Earlier in the day, he announced on Facebook that he would be waiting outside the prison for Williams’ release. Kley, along with news media stationed outside the prison, did not spot Williams, however.

“Cayce You don’t have to hide like ya have been for 24 years,” Kley wrote. “Ima make ya famous. Welcome home.”