Posted on 01/22/2005 11:54:11 PM PST by NativeTexun
I'm not giving his mother the benefit of the doubt in this one. She was only trying to put the blame for this horrendous act on someone (anyone) besides her son. One report mentioned he'd been discharged from the Marines for drugs; it appears he was also arrested on Dec. 6 for cocaine. What do you want to bet there's a juvenile record, too?
You can read about the Laney trial here:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/04/05/laney/
>>I'm not giving his mother the benefit of the doubt in this one<<
Why not? Think of the pain, shame, bewilderment and embarrassment she is going thru. The woman needs prayers and compassion .. not hatred. She didn't pull the trigger. She gave birth, probably tried to raise him well (she and her husband are ministers) but had no control over him after he became an adult. Probably because his parents were ministers he hid his activities well. I hear cocaine can warp a mind. War can change a man as well. I once dated a Vietnam vet that, after a few cocktails, would cry like a baby over the "women and children" he'd killed. It wasn't in his nature to kill but he was forced to and it haunted him.
From the interview located at www.kltv.com I don't get any blame-placing from the mother. Just because she stated it's not the son she knows doesn't mean she is trying to avoid responsibility that her son committed a crime. She clearly stated she does not condone what he did.
Yean, I've got to change some of my personal habits after this as well.
Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.
Referring to the comment "smartass."
He doesn't need to talk a lot. He left lots of evidence of his dastardly deed starting with the tapes proving his loitering at the Wal-Mart as well as the actual abduction caught on tape.
I'm sure he already is aware of the consequences of his actions aka death penalty.
Yeah I know ....the murder in Amarillo took place on the 27th or 28th of December and the transients pipeline of 1-40 and Highway 287 runs through there........always makes one wonder if......
This is excerpted from the Dallas Morning News and gives more detail on William's troubled past than the local
newspapers.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/dmn/stories/012105dntexabducted.2cf156e4.html
A preacher's son
Mr. Williams was a preacher's son who graduated from John Tyler High School in Tyler and joined the Marines a year later despite having had some trouble with the law. He was arrested in 1999 on a charge of criminal trespass and twice more in 2000 for a series of traffic violations, authorities said.
His parents secluded themselves after news of his arrest broke on Friday. Police said they were cooperating in the case. Investigators searched their home, northwest of Tyler, on Friday afternoon. Calls to the residence went unanswered.
The Rev. Johnny Williams Sr. and his wife went on a local television station, KLTV-TV, just before the United States invaded Iraq to talk about her faith that God would protect him and return him "better and whole."
His mother, Patricia Williams, told KLTV on Friday that her son had served 3 ½ years, much of it in Baghdad, and came home haunted by nightmares and unable to adjust. She told the station Mr. Williams couldn't find a job, slept in his clothes and tried unsuccessfully to get help from Veterans Affairs.
Authorities in Tyler said Mr. Williams was arrested once in November on a charge of driving off without paying for gasoline and again in December on a charge of cocaine possession.
He was given a bad-conduct discharge last February after being caught using marijuana and was awaiting his appeal, according to the military.
And about 10:14 p.m. Wednesday, a man later identified by witnesses as Mr. Williams was seen walking from State Highway 64 onto the Wal-Mart property. Surveillance cameras captured a beefy man in a dark, hooded jacket and black baseball cap strolling the store, once being questioned by a security guard as he hovered near its entrance.
Police said Friday that they believed Ms. Holden was chosen at random after her assailant spotted her and then turned away from other potential victims. "He did make several other attempts before he did pick out Megan," the Tyler police chief said.
After Ms. Holden clocked out, a video surveillance camera mounted outside the store captured her striding across the parking lot toward her pickup truck. The video showed a second figure forcing her into the driver's side of the truck and then sitting in the parking lot for several moments before wheeling out, headed to the west on Highway 64.
"This was well-planned," said FBI Agent Jeff Millslagle, head of the bureau's East Texas operations.
Ms. Holden's relatives called Tyler police about 4 a.m. Thursday and reported that she hadn't come home from work. Tyler police immediately launched an investigation and called in the FBI after Wal-Mart representatives found what appeared to be her abduction on surveillance videos.
Police and FBI officials dispatched bulletins across Texas and put helicopters in the air in Smith County, flying at one point over the area where Mr. Williams lived Thursday as they searched for Ms. Holden's truck.
A cellphone tower picked up signals from Ms. Holden's telephone at some point after the abduction, investigators said.
But from there, the trail went cold until sheriff's deputies in Martin County, between Big Spring and Odessa, found Ms. Holden, in a ditch near I-20, dead from at least one gunshot wound.
Evidence at the scene indicated that she was shot and killed where her body was dumped near the town of Stanton, about 400 miles west of where she had been kidnapped. One investigator said she was partially clothed.
More camera footage
Tyler police said surveillance cameras in nearby Odessa captured images of Mr. Williams robbing a convenience store near I-20 at 8:19 p.m. Thursday.
An Odessa police spokesman said a black man wearing a T-shirt and shorts walked into Uncle's convenience store near I-20 at 8:18 p.m. Thursday, drew a handgun and demanded money from the cash register. He then left on foot, the spokesman said.
And just before dawn on Friday, a man wearing a hooded jacket and shorts strode into the Mountain View RV park store near Bowie, Ariz., and pulled an automatic handgun.
A former New York City firefighter was just opening the store when the man walked in. The firefighter, who said his first name was Ritchie but declined to give his last name, said he'd noticed the same man cruising past the store and abruptly wheeling around minutes before.
Ritchie said he was checking something on the store's computer when the man walked in and approached the counter just before 6 a.m. Ritchie said he stood to help him and the man abruptly raised his jacket.
"He said this is a robbery. Give me your money out of the register," the retiree said. "All I see was this automatic coming out of his sweatshirt, coming up toward me, and I drew mine and fired."
Ritchie and the store's owner, Bruce Austin, said they both have worn pistols on their hips while at the store for several years because of several attempted robberies.
Usually, the sight of a 45-caliber Sig-Sauer is enough to scare off trouble, Ritchie said. "It's an attitude-adjustment tool."
The retired firefighter said he initially thought he hadn't hit the would-be robber because the man yelled a profanity, spun around, and ran out the door.
"And he was only three feet away when I fired," the man said. "The police told me he got powder burns on his face."
Within a half hour, the sheriff's department in surrounding Cochise County got reports that a man in a Ford pickup truck was trying to flag down motorists on I-10, asking where he could go to get medical treatment.
Twenty-four miles west of Bowie, Cochise county sheriff's deputies found the same man in a red pickup pulling up to a hospital. Deputies ran a license check that confirmed the truck was Ms. Holden's.
A handgun and a blue gym bag were in the truck, investigators said.
Agent Millslagle said the incident was particularly disturbing because it is such a rarity in East Texas. Few kidnappings anywhere involve strangers, and the area has not had a stranger abduction since 1987, he said.
"Usually it doesn't happen in East Texas, and very rarely is it captured on videotape," he said.
Thanks for this good find!
TomGuy--take a look at this article from NativeTexun--more info on Williams.
I smell an insanity defense.
You're welcome.
Try all they want, it's expected in such atrocities.......they got him. Robbery, (partially clothed victim) sexual assult ?, Kidnapping, Murder, etc etc .....
Just too bad the guy in AZ with the 45 caliber SIG (220 or 245) didn't take this trash out for good.....
Should have put it between the eyes and saved tax payer money... I foresee a seat next to Arafat in his near future.
An insanity defense is just that .. a defense.
Williams, it appears, demonstrated motive, intent, malice, forethought. Witnesses saw him walk onto the Wal-Mart parking lot at about 10:00 p.m. that evening. He was obviously loitering .... looking for an opportunistic victim.
East Texas juries, after the Laney debacle, won't be too swift with sympathy.
Thanks! That woman makes one sick.
I am confident that he's toast. Glad this didn't happen in my state.
It happened in MY town. I might be shopping out there this afternoon. I have been out there several times at night. I read on Wal-Mart's sight today .... no mention of the abduction/murder.. that this particular store opened in June 2004. Anyone who lives here is aware of the "nature" of that area of town.
"site" not "sight"
Have you heard of anything like this happening since the store opening?
no
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