Child care dispute leads to 9 stab wounds at Saginaw Sunoco, victim testifies

SAGINAW, MI — It began as an argument over child care. It ended with a man stabbed nine times in a Saginaw gas station’s parking lot.

Such was the account shared by the stabbing victim, Joe Lee Burns, during the preliminary examination of the man accused of repeatedly thrusting the knife into him, 51-year-old Donald A. Williams. The hearing was held the afternoon of Tuesday, Dec. 9, before Saginaw County District Judge M. Randall Jurrens.

Burns, 39, testified Williams is the stepfather of his girlfriend, with whom he has two children in common. In the early morning of Nov. 21, Burns had a phone conversation with his girlfriend’s mother, who asked him to watch his kids as their mother was in jail, he said. Burns told her he had work obligations and drove to the Sunoco station at 2805 S. W