The media and the public won't get to immediately see sealed portions of a murder plea agreement containing "gruesome" details of a woman's admissions related to the death of her 5-year-old stepdaughter, a federal magistrate has ruled.

Federal Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi denied a request by The Advertiser for the immediate unsealing of seven pages of the agreement, but ruled that some portions may be unsealed once the federal court accepts Delilah Williams' plea agreement later this year.

Kobayashi ruled that the rest of the sealed agreement must be made public once she testifies against her co-defendant husband at his trial or if he also pleads guilty.

The magistrate did unseal several paragraphs, but those dealt with the victim's background information, such as dates of birth and death. She ordered the release of those passages on Feb. 24.

She said the rest of the portions must remain secret to protect the fair trial rights of Delilah Williams, should her plea agreement get rejected and she go to trial, as well as the fair trial rights of her codefendant and husband Naeem Williams, who is also charged with murdering the girl and faces a death penalty trial in October.

Naeem Williams is the father of the victim, Talia Williams, who died July 16, 2005, of "battered child syndrome."

"I'm disappointed that the public will not get to see the full content of the statements contained in the plea agreement at this time, but I am appreciative of the court recognizing the public's right of access to court documents, including portions of this plea agreement at various stages of the upcoming proceedings," Advertiser attorney Jeffrey Portnoy said yesterday.

He said Kobayashi "balanced the extraordinary nature of this seminal Hawai'i death penalty case with the public's right to access and has concluded that the plea agreement contains 'gruesome' details that have not been released and that should not be released at this time."

Delilah and Naeem Williams were charged with the child-abuse murder of young Talia.

Delilah Williams' plea agreement calls for a 20-year sentence instead of a life term and requires her to testify against her husband. The portions of the plea agreement that was sealed contained her admissions in the case.

In a 27-page opinion issued this week, Kobayashi said the sealed portions contained "significant, and sometimes gruesome, details that have not collectively been released to the media and the public with such detailed specificity."

The release at this time would jeopardize Delilah Williams' right to a fair trial should the federal court reject the agreement, the magistrate said. But once the court accepts it at a hearing tentatively scheduled for April, then certain portions, but not all of the unsealed passages, will be released. Some portions will remain sealed until she testifies at her husband's trial, the magistrate said.

The trial would be the first involving capital punishment since Hawai'i abolished the death penalty in the 1950s.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.