'It's a set-up, my boy’s no monster' - Father speaks out after son jailed for hiring ‘hitman’ to kill ex

The retired 65-year-old originally from the Yew Tree Estate, Walsall, was with his son William on Venice Beach, California, when he was arrested, put his own house up to help raise his £2million bail fee and was present at his trial.

Now, speaking exclusively to the Express & Star Kevin has told of how the life of his boy ‘Billy’ spiralled out of control.

After reaching a plea-deal admitting to one felony count of attempted murder and two felony counts of solicitation to commit murder, William Wallace, aged 36, was sentenced to nine years in jail earlier this year – avoiding the possibility of 27 years to life if a jury had have found him guilty.

But that does not begin to tell the whole story according Kevin, who now lives in Mallorca. He maintains his son is not the monster he was made out to be and that he was entrapped by a private investigator who kept him 'on the hook’.

William Wallace grew up on the Yew Tree Estate going to Fir Tree and Manor High schools in the Friar Park area of Wednesbury.

“He was a bit of a ‘Jack the Lad’,” said Kevin. “He was a nice kid. He played a bit of amateur football. He’s a Baggies fan.”

As a teenager William joined the Army and served in Kosovo with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers reaching Corporal rank.

When he left he did a number of different things including opening up a bar in Birmingham, but it was as a young man he started to lose a grip on life according to Kevin who said: “He got married to a woman from down south, got a house, had a daughter, started a bar, he did everything too quick. He took too much on. He thought he could handle it but he couldn’t.”

William then explored the opportunity of growing and selling medicinal marijuana legally in America – a career path which put him on the cusp of being a ‘multi-millionaire’ until he was arrested, according to Kevin.

But by 2013 his ‘rocky’ marriage had broken down and before long he became embattled in a bitter custody battle for his then four-year-old daughter. For reasons which legally cannot be published Kevin said his son began to fear for his child’s safety.

“It tore him apart,” said Kevin. “I said how can your give her (William’s daughter) back but he said if I don’t they’ll arrest me. He wanted to get custody legitimately.”

It was at that point William turned to a private investigator to ‘dig up dirt’ on his ex-wife to use in court against her – what he did not realise was that he was also a police informant.

At some juncture the idea of killing his ex-wife came up and simply snowballed.

In the December of that year William was covertly recorded striking an 18,000 dollar agreement with a ‘hitman’ who was actually an undercover detective from Orange County Sheriff’s Department, as well as claiming he had paid to kill before.

At trial his defence was that he was snared illegally by police - an argument which Kevin sticks by.

“It was entrapment,” he said, “He’s no angel. He admitted to soliciting. Billy said some bad things on those tapes (recordings used against him in evidence) but he wasn’t pushing it. They (the police and private investigator) were pushing it. It was them who came up with this story of how to dispose of the body. Not Billy. Then they wanted a deposit. A deposit to kill someone? Billy said he would pay it in full then they could do the job. But he never paid the money. He never sealed the deal. He never intended to. The things he said about doing it before was all bravado, being the ‘big I am’, the ‘big man’, I know him.”

Kevin claimed Billy wanted to break off the idea but the private investigator fabricated a story to make him fear his daughter was in immediate danger.

He added: “I know for a fact he was trying to get out of doing this thing with the hitman.

“There was something he was trying to get out of at the time but we didn’t know what. It was the text messages, the phone calls, just the way he was.”

He added: "Billy wanted to cool it off. But they made up this story about his daughter. He was devastated. It was a complete lie to get him back on the hook."

Speaking to us at a pub back on the Yew Tree Estate Kevin broke down at his son's plight whilst explaining how Billy’s lawyer pushed for a deal when he could sense the jury were reaching guilty verdicts.

He said: “It happened very quickly, Billy didn’t want to plea but his lawyer brushed aside his protests. It was nine years or 27 to life. He couldn’t take that risk.”

William is currently in Wasco State Prison in California and has already served more than two years on remand. Kevin hopes he will be out after half his sentenced has passed.

He added: “When he took the plea I thought it is not ideal, but I can still take him back to Mallorca and I can walk down the street with him.

“I have just wrote my first letter too him. I couldn’t do it before now because me speaking about normal things I don’t know how that will affect his mind.”

Kevin added: “He is a very clever and imaginative businessman but he is very stupid.

“He trusts people really, really easily and puts too much trust in people he doesn’t know.

“For now it is a waiting game, when he gets out we’ll all have to get through it.

“But I have every confidence he will make a success and a living.”