CHAIR THIEF FOCUS OF MURDER PROBE.(Local)

Byline: Joe Mahoney Staff writer

State Police detectives are focusing their investigation into the January 1988 murder of Karolyn Lonczak on Jeffrey D. Williams of Cohoes, who was sentenced to state prison this week for stealing a chair, a defense lawyer acknowledged Wednesday.

"They've convinced themselves that he did it," attorney Terence L. Kindlon of Albany said. "The police are making no secret of the fact that they are investigating him" for the Lonczak murder.

Lonczak, a Hudson Valley Community College student, was the lone attendant on duty at a Cohoes group home for mentally retarded adults the night of Jan. 23, 1988, when she was …