Brianna Shontae Williams: Former Navy Chief Petty Officer Gets Life in Prison: A 5-year-old girl’s mother — a former Navy chief petty officer — was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for the death of the little girl.
Brianna Shontae Williams, 30, reported Taylor Rose Williams missing on November 6, 2019, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Less than a week later, the little girl’s badly decomposed remains were found in a shallow grave in Demopolis, Alabama — her mother’s hometown.
Table of Contents
- 1 Brianna Shontae Williams: Former Navy Chief Petty Officer Gets Life in Prison
- 2 A ‘tragedy all around’ leads judge to sentence Brianna Williams to life term for daughter’s death
- 3 The life and death of Taylor Rose Williams -Brianna Shontae Williams: Former Navy Chief Petty Officer Gets Life in Prison
- 4 Bodycam video shows Brianna Williams crying to Jacksonville police about missing 5-year-old daughter
Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March.
On Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Kevin Blazs in Florida said the incident was “a tragedy all around,” the Florida Times-Union reported.
“The victim was not valued from the time of conception by either her father or mother,” Blazs said. “Her mother suffered from an eating disorder. The father complained that the victim was not being properly fed. The defendant then removed the victim from child care about four months prior to the victim’s death. Taylor remained home alone and unprovided for throughout that time period.”
The little girl, the judge said, died from “the consequence of starvation.”
By the time her mother reported her missing, Taylor Rose hadn’t been seen alive for nearly seven months. Investigators discovered GPS records showing Williams traveling to Alabama from the Jacksonville area and back on October 31, November 1, and November 2 — and that the girl’s remains were found in the area where the GPS put Williams traveling. They also found a rope, blue gloves, wire, papers, a knife, and cardboard. When she returned from Alabama the final time, she used Craigslist to hire people to help her move to a new apartment.
A ‘tragedy all around’ leads judge to sentence Brianna Williams to life term for daughter’s death
Brianna Shontae Williams had a duty to care for her daughter Taylor, the judge told her, but she failed to do so as the 5-year-old just wasted away in Jacksonville. Then she secretly stowed the child’s body in the trunk of her vehicle, buried her in a crude Alabama grave and falsely reported her disappearance.
Calling it “a tragedy all around,” Circuit Court Judge Kevin Blazs sentenced Williams to life in prison Tuesday.
Almost six months after entering a guilty plea to second-degree murder in Taylor Rose Williams’ death, the 30-year-old former Navy chief petty officer stood still, hands and feet in manacles, as the judge advised her fate.
The prosecution had argued for life in prison, while Williams’ public defender urged the minimum 20½-years during last week’s sentencing hearing.
Blazs told Williams he had spent the weekend poring over the evidence he heard and was presented. It included her “unstable” family life with claims of abuse and records showing Taylor’s death was in all probability “the consequence of starvation,” he said.
“The victim was not valued from the time of conception by either her father or mother,” the judge said. “Her mother suffered from an eating disorder. The father complained that the victim was not being properly fed. The defendant then removed the victim from child care about four months prior to the victim’s death. Taylor remained home alone and unprovided for throughout that time period.”
Williams’ Nov. 6, 2019, claim that Taylor was missing from their Ivy Street home prompted a huge neighborhood search that soon expanded to her old apartment as an Amber Alert was issued. Some people told police they had not seen Taylor in weeks as then-Sheriff Mike Williams could not confirm the last time she was seen alive.
He said that while the mother initially cooperated in the investigation, she stopped after being confronted with some discrepancies in her story.
A multistate search ensued before ending on Nov. 12 when investigators found the child’s remains about 4 miles outside of Demopolis, Ala., near where Williams grew up, authorities said.
Williams was absentee-booked that day while hospitalized due to an attempt to kill herself when she learned her daughter’s body had been found, police said. Her arrest warrant stated she “did willfully torture, maliciously punish, or willfully cage” a child.
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New details in the case were released in court records just over a year ago, a 22-page list of witness interviews and thousands of photos, videos, documents and records.
Although she was initially charged with child neglect and abuse, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder this spring. That resulted in a three-day sentencing hearing last week, with 100-plus pieces of evidence referred and testimony from multiple people who knew her.
Detectives talked about finding children’s clothing and a bedroom carpet stained with feces at their apartment, her car wreaking of decomposition and the home on Ivy Street that did not “look like a child was living there.”
Investigators also procured Williams’ cellphone records to track her movements, showing she made three trips to Alabama, the third to Demopolis tracing her to just about where the body was ultimately found.
Neighbors testified about smelling something bad coming from the young woman’s storage closet and the child often spotted wandering unattended looking for her mother.
A psychologist described his evaluations of Williams being anxious and depressed, certainly showing some schizophrenia and mood disorders. She said she didn’t know what to do when she couldn’t find Taylor one day and discovered her cold and unresponsive in a closet. She wanted to bury her next to her grandfather.
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