Court to hear retrial motion
— Mark Skinner / Floridan
Wesley Jonathan Williams, right, consults with members of his defense team during his murder trial.
Floridan Staff Writer
Published: October 22, 2009
Circuit Judge Bill Wright is scheduled on Friday morning to hear the motion for retrial filed by Wesley Jonathan Williams’ defense attorney, Walter Smith.
Earlier this month, Williams was convicted on four counts of first degree murder, and three counts of aggravated child abuse. The charges stem from the deaths of his ex-girlfriend Danielle Baker and her three young sons. Baker was shot to death and the boys were suffocated by the duct tape used to bind them.
Smith asked for a retrial a little less than two weeks after the Oct. 2 convictions.
He said at the time he would be focusing on what he felt was the overall weakness of the state’s case when he presents his argument to Wright.
The state has filed a point-by-point response to the motion for new trial.
It appeared at one point that Williams’ current girlfriend, Bridgette Kelly, might have provided some additional fuel for the re-trial argument. But Smith said her information apparently didn’t hold up.
Almost immediately after the verdicts were read, Kelly told members of the media she was related to one of the jurors and that she and the juror didn’t get along particularly well.
Smith said the prosecutor subsequently interviewed the juror in question and that the juror in question said she didn’t know Kelly and wasn’t related to her.
Williams has not yet been sentenced. He faces either the death penalty or life in prison if the trial decision stands.
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Reader Reactions
kpkjordan listen sweetie i dont take death for a joke. Ive seen my father gunned down with my eyes,Ive seen my baby brother get killed with my eyes,I seen to many friends get murderd with my eyes. So please dont feel i made a joke about your cousins death. God gives life he"s the only one who should take it away.So once again if I offended you in anyway Im sorry OK!
Mojo40! Just because I say I knew them doesn’t mean I was in control of the things that they did. But what are you saying, if your sister slept with a married man and was murdered are you saying she got what she deserved? Would you be calm if you were on here and people were calling her a trick and a Ho and saying it was her fault that this happened to her because of the choices that she made? All I am saying is this. Pointing fingers and calling names is not going to bring either person back to their children. If so, Ashanti and my three litte cousins would be very happy right now cause with all of the things that have been said about them since their passing, they would have been back by now.
kpkjordan…..if you knew these people so well then you know they WERE tricks only tricks sleep with married people.
N2deep…. I accept you apologizing and I accept. It was not my sister who was murdered, it was my cousin Antoinette Ross. I saw a comment that you left on wctv.com about the situation. I guess in a joking manner you said “Gots to be more careful. I didn’t like that much either but I cannot go back and forth with you in regards to both of these cases. Everybody involved I knew, Danielle, Joe Rat, Barry Moore and Antoinette was family. It hurts anybody who is grieveing to see the next person speaking about your loved one who is no longer here in a bad way. When these two ladies were alive, I never heard they were tricks, and home wreckers, had different baby daddies, and non perfect. Now that they are not here to defend themselves people have so much to say. At the end of the day people are hurting, Mothers and Fathers are in Pain. The Bible even tells us that the worst pain is to bury your child. These websites should not be used to slander anybody but to uplift and show support. Somebody could get hurt behind this stuff. A 19 year old male was shot in the back of the head here in Tallahasse tonight from an altercation that took place earlier this evening. They were not fighting. What were they doing? Running their Mouths at each other. Something to think about.
It really pisses me off to see people, or a person, talking about Danielle like that. She had her faults but all in all she was a good person, and at the time she was trying to make a better life for her and her babies. I went to K-1 and some of high school with Danielle, and all of high school with Joe Rat. I saw him everyday. Danielle was much more of a friend and good person than he was. He stole one of my friend’s jackets and WORE IT to school. I do remember that in particular. He was cute though, and in high school cute matters more than dumb, so Danielle fell for him, I suppose more than once. However, ANYONE who can KILL an innocent child, especially when they make the child suffer, should have to suffer. I’m sure they have the right man for this murder. If not, I’ll admit I was wrong, but I doubt that will be the case. It’s just weird how the person let Ashanti live and took the lives of Ahmaad and Amarion, both who Joe Rat knew were his, and also Aaron, whose paternity was up in the air. Hm. My thoughts are with the Baker family and little Ashanti. God Bless her!
Didn’t say he was gonna be shocked. ‘Juiced,‘ as in, a cocktail of drugs into his veins, and much too easy for a punk that duct-taped 3 little kids faces! He needs the same thing! Nobody else had a reason to kill them.
wouldnt you like to see that. Its not going to happen,why would i want to play the race card in a situation such as this.Grow up whoever you are and recheck your stats your so wrong about wanting to see a man get shocked to death. will that change anything? NO,so you continue to have hate on your heart,ill ask some God fearing people to pray for you.
I just read the “DEATH ROW ROSTER.“ There is not one from Jackson County on ‘The Row,‘ BUT, gonna be soon! Don’t holler racism either. There are right now 238 white men on death row, 1 white female,136 black males(fixin to be 137) and 0 black females. Gonna be a ‘juiced up rat!‘
kpkjordan you are so right I apologize to anyone offended by my comment. Its not right to call any woman foul names.Theres no excuse for it. Im sorry your sister was murderd hope they catch the person who did it!
The reason, I fight to see justice in my line of work is when I read such comment’s or hear people talk like this reader:
Posted by madblackwoman on October 22, 2009 at 1:48 pm
what i’m i getting out of likeing a murder? i hope he don’t get a new trial. why waste all this money when he’s guilty?
We have a JUSTICE SYSTEM for what it is in JACKSON COUNTY. However, we are entitled to the DUE PROCESS OF LAW!!
You never know what has yet to be told and we all might just learn more…If we open our ear’s and not our mouth’s.
MADBLACKWOMAN….....Have you ever been arrested…???
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