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.

‘I failed as a mother, a protector’: Brianna Williams awaits sentence in daughter’s death

Watch: Bodycam video shows Brianna Williams crying to police about missing 5-year-old daughter

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.”

This is the photo released with the Amber Alert for 5-year-old Taylor Rose Williams, whose mother reported her missing Nov. 6, 2019, from their Jacksonville home.

The life and death of Taylor Rose Williams

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.

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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.

Mother charged: Brianna Williams released from hospital, jailed in daughter’s case

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.

Defense attorney Joshua Beard speaks to Brianna Williams on Tuesday before Circuit Court Judge Kevin Blazs sentenced her to life in prison for the death of her 5-year-old daughter in 2019.

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.

‘Starved her to death’: Brianna Williams’ friends say they think that’s what happened to the 5-year-old

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.

Brianna Williams enters the courtroom Tuesday at the Duval County Courthouse to learn her fate after pleading guilty to killing her 5-year-old daughter, Taylor. Judge Kevin Blazs sentenced her to life in prison.

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.

Not-guilty plea entered: Brianna Williams enters pleas in 5-year-old Taylor’s death

‘Voluminous’ materials: New documents in Brianna Williams’ case paint dark picture of daughter’s death

Then Williams quietly told the judge she was too “scared, nervous” to read her final statement to him on Friday, so a member of the Public Defender’s Office did. In it, Williams said she knows what she did was wrong, admitting that she “lied and lied some more” about what happened.

“I failed as a mother, a protector and as a decent human being,” the statement read. “… and I didn’t take advantage of any timely opportunity to right my wrongs. I apologize to everyone affected by this tragedy. I am punished every day since losing my baby.”

A weekend of evidence re-examined

Tuesday the judge said he reread much of the evidence over the past few days. That included Williams’ school and Navy records, clinical psychological reports and Taylor’s autopsy as well as evidence of “what she did after the death and the desecration of the body afterward.”

Circuit Court Judge Kevin Blazs sentences Brianna Williams to life in prison on Tuesday in the 2019 death of Taylor Rose Williams, her 5-year-old daughter.

While he found her lack of a past criminal record “unusual” and her Navy background “outstanding,” Blazs said there were many other “unresolved” issues. Regarding the psychological issues, the “court has taken all that testimony into consideration,” he said.

The judge pointed to a lot of evidence that showed no food in Williams’ Ivy Street home or the Southside apartment in the months leading up to Taylor’s death.

“There was no significant purchase of groceries during that time period,” Blazs said, noting Taylor also appeared small in evidence photos, apparently losing weight.

Brianna Williams, 30, prepares to enter the courtroom on Tuesday before she was sentenced to life in prison for killing her 5-year-old daughter.

One Williams discovered her dead, “the defendant failed to report the death of her daughter,” he said. “She then lied to law enforcement repeatedly over the course of investigation in order to conceal what she had done, which was to transport the body out of state and dispose of the body, which this court construes as the consciousness of guilt.”

Finally, analysis of the child’s bones showed evidence of malnutrition, but no one will ever know for sure ” because the defendant disposed of the body in such a way that it prevented the analysis that would result in an expert opinion,”Blazs said.

Evidence: Skeletal remains, filthy clothes included in thousands of new photographs released in the Brianna Williams case

In sentencing Willams to life, “I wanted to ensure that the community is protected and that the decision is rendered in a way that does not dishonor the death of Tayor Rose,” the judge said.

Williams was credited with 1,043 days time served awaiting sentencing.

“Brianna Williams’ elaborate lies initially concealed her terrible crime in the murder of her innocent daughter,” said State Attorney Melissa Nelson. “The dogged work by law enforcement and prosecutors brought the truth to light and, ultimately, justice was served for Taylor.”

dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville mother Brianna Williams is sentenced for daughter’s death