Janet Grady found out her sister and brother-in-law were shot when she received a call from friend and current Lenoir County Commissioner Jackie Brown on the morning of Sept. 26, 2006.
After learning Mildred and Robert Bryant were taken to Lenoir Memorial Hospital, she made her way there, as well. Grady said Wednesday in Lenoir County Superior Court that she was escorted to a room to wait by herself, where Dr. Aaron Cotten gave her sad news.
“He told me that Mr. Bryant would not make it, but that Mildred did, and he said that they had airlifted her to — it was Pitt at the time — to Vidant,” Grady said in testimony during the Marlon Williams murder trial.
She testified that she went on to Greenville, and she said after waiting for a couple hours, she was able to talk to her sister.
Asked by Assistant District Attorney Imelda Pate the state of Mildred Bryant’s condition, Grady sighed.
“Bloody,” Grady said. “The sheet she had on her, it looked like blood had seeped through.”
Grady said she asked her sister how she was doing, and said Mildred smiled and said she was OK.
Then, Grady told of what she says Mildred Bryant said to her.
During this period of testimony, defense attorney Tom Sallenger objected as to statements alleging his client’s, Marlon Williams’, guilt in the matter. After eliciting several instructions to the jurors from Judge Paul L. Jones that Grady’s testimony may or may not corroborate testimony of others, the prosecution’s direct examination moved forward.
Grady went on to say Mildred Bryant said she and her husband Robert were at their home on Dobbs Farm Road when the door bell rang at 7:30 a.m. on the day of the shooting. According to Grady, Mildred said she went to the door and invited in Williams, noting it was odd he was wearing “big gloves.”
Per Grady’s testimony, Williams asked for a cup of coffee, and he and Mildred talked. Then, Grady said, Williams asked for a ride to his car which he allegedly said cut out on him at Kinston High School. Grady testified Mildred told her Robert would drive them out to the car, but once they got into the Bryants’ Chrysler Pacifica, Williams said the car was by Wayne Chapel AME Zion Church.
Then, Grady explained, Mildred told her Williams thought he left the keys at the Bryants’ house, so they went back to the house, then returned to the church.
“(Williams) got out and said goodbye, and the next thing she knew, he turned around and started shooting Mr. Bryant,” Grady said.
Grady said Mildred told her she put her hands up over her head, and when she looked up, Williams was gone.
Sallenger asked Grady if she remembered not mentioning the alleged gloves to then-Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jim Oldenburg, or that the first mention of the gloves came in a 2012 interview with law enforcement. For the most part, Grady said she didn’t recall what she may or may not have said to investigators in the years following the incident.
Lafayette, Calif., 2010
In May 2010, deputies with the U.S. Marshals Service arrived in what Ryan Sullivan, then serving under contract as a local police officer, called the affluent and mostly residential town of Lafayette, Calif., less than 15 miles from Oakland.
The Marshals were looking for Williams, but Sullivan said no one who worked law enforcement in the town knew a man of that name, though the image of Williams was familiar. When another officer identified the picture as a Shell gas station attendant known to law enforcement as “J,” about a dozen deputy Marshals began surveillance of the location.
Sullivan said J was well-known to local law enforcement, since they would gas up their cruisers at the Shell station and see him at the nearby Starbucks.
According to Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Harkin, once the Marshals had reasonable belief the station attendant was Williams, they waited until no other customers or employees were at the site, then detained Williams when he went to service the car wash change machine.
Harkin said Williams produced two identification cards — a Louisiana ID under the name of Jabari B. Nyack and what appeared to be a press pass. Harkin said the IDs were immediately peculiar because the same picture was used for both, when they would be issued by different entities.
There was no mention in open court of any marks on the press pass that suggested it was issued from a particular news organization or press association.
Once Williams was fingerprinted at the Lafayette police station and his identity confirmed, officers transported him to the local detention center in Martinez, from which he was sent back to North Carolina.
Closing arguments
Once the prosecution rested, Jones denied a number of defense motions, among them to not allow questions regarding Williams’ 1990 assault conviction. Jones said it would be fair game for the prosecution on cross-examination because of the nature of the current crimes he’s charged with and alleged flight from prosecution.
Williams, with the advice of counsel, chose not to present evidence or call witnesses on his own behalf.
Closing arguments begin today at 9:30 a.m., following which the case will go to the jury for deliberations.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.