Wednesday, February 28, 2024

State v. Antonio Williams

Decatur, Ga.- DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announces a conviction by jury trial in the case against a Lithonia man accused of stabbing and killing his mother. 

Jurors returned guilty verdicts on Monday against Antonio Williams, 28, on charges of Malice Murder, two counts of Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault, and Possession of a Knife During the Commission of a Felony stemming from an incident on March 5, 2020. 

According to the investigation, officers from the DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) responded to a person down call at a home on White Oak Loop in Lithonia. Upon arrival, officers observed Defendant Williams sitting in front of the garage. The Defendant told officers that he had been released from Grady Memorial Hospital and came home to find his mother unresponsive. He had gone to a neighbor’s house to call 911 and told the neighbor that he needed help because his mother had fainted. 

The victim, Terri Alexander, 49, was found on the garage floor with a sheet covering her body. She had numerous stab wounds and was cold to the touch.

Firewood, lighter fluid, and charcoal were found near the victim and in a car parked in the garage, and there was a burn hole in the sheet covering the victim.

Officers found dried blood throughout the house and a bloody chef’s knife in the victim’s bedroom along with more dried blood, bloody towels, black trash bags, and empty bleach bottles. Bloody shoes were found in Defendant Williams’s bathroom along with a bathtub filled with water.

Further investigation revealed that on February 25, 2020, DKPD’s Mobile Crisis Unit responded to the incident location where Defendant Williams and his mother had been arguing about him not cleaning the bathroom. Defendant Williams was transported to Grady’s mental health unit after it was discovered he was not taking his medications as prescribed.   

Records indicate that Defendant Williams was released from the hospital the morning of March 4, 2020. The victim’s phone shows that she traveled to Grady on March 4 after receiving multiple calls from the hospital. The phone then traveled to a store before returning home. The phone was never unlocked again after 2:07 p.m. on March 4.

DeKalb County Judge Winston Bethel, who presided over the trial, will schedule a sentencing hearing for Defendant Williams in the coming weeks. 

The case, assigned to the Homicide and Gangs Unit, was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Andrew Turner with assistance from Senior Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Friedman, District Attorney Investigator A. Zackery, and Victim Advocate Kaysha Albritton.  DeKalb County Police Department Detective D.D. Evans led the initial investigation.