Roamer
10-03-2009, 08:25 AM
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/21185078/detail.html
POSTED: Friday, October 2, 2009
(http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/#)
MARIANNA, Fla. -- Jurors in rural Jackson County spent less than two hours deliberating before convicting a Panhandle man on Friday of killing his 19-year-old former girlfriend and her three young children.
Circuit Judge William Wright could sentence Wesley Williams, 25, to death or life in prison at a later sentencing hearing.
Jurors convicted Williams of four counts of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse in the 2005 deaths of Danielle Baker and her children, Amad, 3, Amarion, 1, and Aaron, 3 weeks.
Baker was shot to death inside her Marianna apartment. The three boys were suffocated together in a bathtub after being bound with duct tape.
Prosecutor Larry Basford had said Williams killed Baker and the children because he was angered by her effort to collect child support for two children he fathered. Witnesses testified Williams did not act surprised or grief stricken when investigators told him Baker and the children were slain.
Cell phone records also placed him in the area of the apartment and talking repeatedly to Baker the night of the killings.
But defense attorney Walter Smith told the jury that Williams had no reason to kill the family and he said DNA evidence did not support a conviction.
Smith said Williams would have benefited financially if Baker had died and he had then been given legal custody along with money from the state to care for his two children.
Investigators have said it appears more than one person was involved in the deaths. The bodies were covered in bleach and the killer or killers used latex gloves, so investigators have said DNA evidence from the crime scene was minimal.
Williams is the only person charged so far in the case.
POSTED: Friday, October 2, 2009
(http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/#)
MARIANNA, Fla. -- Jurors in rural Jackson County spent less than two hours deliberating before convicting a Panhandle man on Friday of killing his 19-year-old former girlfriend and her three young children.
Circuit Judge William Wright could sentence Wesley Williams, 25, to death or life in prison at a later sentencing hearing.
Jurors convicted Williams of four counts of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse in the 2005 deaths of Danielle Baker and her children, Amad, 3, Amarion, 1, and Aaron, 3 weeks.
Baker was shot to death inside her Marianna apartment. The three boys were suffocated together in a bathtub after being bound with duct tape.
Prosecutor Larry Basford had said Williams killed Baker and the children because he was angered by her effort to collect child support for two children he fathered. Witnesses testified Williams did not act surprised or grief stricken when investigators told him Baker and the children were slain.
Cell phone records also placed him in the area of the apartment and talking repeatedly to Baker the night of the killings.
But defense attorney Walter Smith told the jury that Williams had no reason to kill the family and he said DNA evidence did not support a conviction.
Smith said Williams would have benefited financially if Baker had died and he had then been given legal custody along with money from the state to care for his two children.
Investigators have said it appears more than one person was involved in the deaths. The bodies were covered in bleach and the killer or killers used latex gloves, so investigators have said DNA evidence from the crime scene was minimal.
Williams is the only person charged so far in the case.