As of 12:25 p.m. Thursday, Marlon Williams is a free man.
A Lenoir County Superior Court jury took slightly more than an hour to unanimously acquit Williams of all four charges relating to the murder of his grandfather, Robert Bryant, and attempted murder of his step-grandmother, Mildred Bryant, on Sept. 26, 2006.
The prosecution and defense made their final pitches to the jury earlier that morning.
Assistant District Attorney Imelda Pate described in detail the narrative expressed by Mildred Bryant earlier in the trial, and her sister — Janet Grady — about what happened the day of the incident. Pate reiterated how Mildred Bryant stopped paramedics from attending to her, essentially risking her life, so she could tell them that Williams committed the act.
Defense attorney Tom Sallenger, in his closing argument, countered the claim by pointing out Mildred Bryant initially told law enforcement responding to the scene only that the perpetrator was a black male, and once she got in the ambulance, suffered a case of mistaken identity.
“Not one piece of evidence points to Marlon Williams,” Sallenger said.
Indeed, expert witnesses called by the prosecution said they found no evidence of Williams’ fingerprints or DNA on one of two coffee cups he allegedly drank from at the Bryants’ house, and no blood, DNA or fingerprints at the scene of the crime to suggest he’d been there.
Sallenger said the prosecution’s case was essentially 180-plus pieces of a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that it expected the jury to assemble.
Pate took about 24 minutes to make her case, and Sallenger nearly doubled that time to the minute in making the final argument for the defense.
Following Judge Paul L. Jones’ charge to the jury, jurors began to rise from their seats when Williams exclaimed, “I am innocent. I am not guilty.”
Once jurors were secure in their room for deliberations, Jones told Williams he nearly caused the whole trial to start over.
“You are about one inch from causing a mistrial,” Jones said.
As deliberations went on, attorneys, court staff, Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office deputies and members of the assembled audience talked, watched the clock and waited.
Roughly 70 minutes later, Jones returned to the courtroom in his robe and everyone went back to their places for the jury’s verdict.
The jurors walked in and sat in their appointed chairs, and Jones gave direction for the foreman to pass the bailiff the envelope containing the jury’s judgment. Jones looked at the verdict and handed the envelope back to the bailiff, who in turn gave it to the clerk who read the decision aloud.
Tension filled the room and emotion built among Williams’ family members with each announcement — not guilty of first degree murder, not guilty of discharging a firearm into occupied property, not guilty of attempted first degree murder and not guilty of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury.
“Mr. Williams, the jury has found you not guilty — you are hereby discharged,” Jones said. “Thank you.”
Williams put his head in his hands before getting up and giving Sallenger a big hug, then giving a hug to his brother across the bar before being processed and released.
At 12:45 p.m., Williams emerged and celebrated with his family outside the courthouse.
“It feels like God answered the prayers of His righteous man, that’s all,” Williams’ mother, Pamela Holloway Williams, said. “He answered the prayers. That’s all it is, God’s prayers being answered, because He knew — He knew already what the answer was. We had to wait on it.”
Marlon Williams expressed gratitude in the outcome.
“A lot of people have been convicted of crimes they didn’t do,” he said. “And, what this does is just give us a renewed sense of faith in the system. It’s just this overwhelming sensation that justice is done.”
He added that the process isn’t entirely over.
“Now, I would like (them) to prosecute, find the real killer,” Marlon Williams said.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.