Williams v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting certain similar transaction evidence and gave the jury an appropriate limiting instruction with regard to the similar transaction evidence in the defendant's trial for murder and related crimes in connection with the death of his 1-year-old daughter after she ingested cocaine.

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Following a jury trial, appellant Anthony Tawon Williams was found guilty of four counts of felony murder, as well as their underlying felonies, arising out of the death of his young daughter. The child died after ingesting cocaine which the jury found appellant and his co-defendant, Stephanie Stephens, the mother of the child, possessed at their home with intent to distribute.1 Appellant now appeals his conviction and, for the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence presented at trial shows that during the early morning hours of June 16, 2007, emergency personnel responded to a 911 call involving a child in distress at the home appellant shared with co-defendant Stephens and their five children, including one-year-old Jewell Williams. Jewell was taken to the hospital where she later died of cocaine poisoning. A GBI forensic toxicologist who tested a sample of Jewell’s blood for the presence of drugs and alcohol testified he could not say how much cocaine she had ingested but that her blood tested positive for cocaine at a level that exceeded the 1.6 milligrams per liter which was the highest measurement calibrated on the instrument he regularly uses to test blood for such substances. The testimony of investigators established that appellant told authorities Jewell had ingested cocaine brought into the home that night by Freida Wofford and that Ms. Wofford had returned later that night looking for her lost cocaine. Appellant showed the investigating officer the exact location in the living room, in front of the sofa, where he believed Jewell had found and ingested the cocaine. The officer observed a crystal substance on the floor in front of the sofa that appeared to be cocaine. A vacuum cleaner that was in the same room was seized as evidence, and testing later confirmed the presence of trace amounts of cocaine inside the vacuum cleaner bag. No additional cocaine or other controlled substance, and no drug paraphernalia, were found in the house.

Williams v. State

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