UPDATE (8/14/23): Adam Reams pleaded guilty to a reduced charge under a plea agreement on August 9.

Reams is guilty of second-degree murder, while armed criminal action and abandonment charges were dismissed.

Reams will be sentenced on November 21, 2023.

Original Story

HOUSTON, Mo.- A Texas County man charged with stabbing another man to death is to stand trial in December.

Texas County Circuit Judge John Beger scheduled Dec. 12-16, 2022, for a trial of 39-year-old Adam Tyler Reams of Houston. He is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, and abandonment of a corpse.

Online court records indicate Houston police responded to a reported stabbing at a home in the 300 block of Broadway in Houston and found Billy J. Hayes Jr., 30, with multiple stab wounds.

Three people who were at the home when officers arrived were taken to the Texas County Sheriff’s Office for questioning about the stabbing, according to a probable cause statement from Houston Police.

Reams had been arrested at his home on West Chestnut Street after a domestic violence incident. Court documents say Reams tried to flee from officers but was apprehended a short time later. They noticed Reams had a large laceration on his right hand and was bleeding. Officers believed Reams did not get the injury from the domestic violence call.

While at Reams’ home, officers interviewed his wife and her roommate. His wife told police Reams came home drunk and told her he had been drinking with Hayes. She also said Reams had been upset with Hayes because Hayes had been talking about Reams’ wife being in a relationship with another man.

Court documents say Reams’ wife’s roommate told police when Reams came home; he told her to tell his daughter, “I love her and will never see her again.”

During an interview with authorities, Reams said he had not seen Hayes for three to four weeks, and that was only in passing. Officers noted he had large amounts of blood on his hands, arms, and torso and had a hand injury consistent with one you would receive from a knife wound. Later that evening, authorities found the knife M.R. described, with large amounts of blood on it less than a block from Reams’ home.

Reams’ next court appearance is for a pre-trial conference on Nov. 22, 2022 in Houston.