Williams Murder Trial Ends With Conviction On Lesser Charges

The verdict is in and the jury says it wasn't murder; it was all just a tragic accident. Kevin Williams had been charged with killing a 14 year old savannah girl back in 2007. Williams himself is still a teenager, just 19 years old and was only 16 when he was charged with murder back in 2007. He was charged with killing India Boston, at Roscoe's restaurant on MLK Boulevard in Savannah. Kevin Williams entered this trial facing life in prison if convicted of murder in the shooting death of India Boston in 2007 - in the end he faces only ten years on a conviction of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. That's a change that didn't leave everyone happy.

“I feel like justice was not served - they just gave him a slap on the wrist and we lost our little sister - her took her life - she didn't leave us - she was taken from us by Kevin Williams,” said India’s sister Brittany. Emotions ran high between the two families involved in the trial. A case of a teenager shot and killed by another - the question being asked - was the shooting intentional - did it rise to the level of murder? Prosecutor Greg McConnell in closing arguments said, “Every time you hear the defense say it was an accident - you ask yourself - was it criminally negligent behavior - and if the answer is yes - then it can not legally be an accident.” “That's exactly why we put these people up on the witness stand and we ask the questions - a test of what the facts were and ask them if they were sure about what they were saying - try to make sense of it - because otherwise Mr. McConnell gets to stand up here and spin you a fairytale that we've got a murder case and we don't.”

In the end - Chief Judge Perry Brannen took that decision out of the jury's hands. He made the decision after testimony concluded that the evidence did not support a charge of murder but was a classic case of involuntary manslaughter. That's what the jury was asked to consider and a guilty verdict was returned after only about an hour of deliberations. “It was a very serious case - tragic, tragic case - a loss of an innocent child, it's a terrible case - I can't be surprised about the sentence - Judge Brannen was incredibly decent the entire time, I mean he gave us a very fair trial - he was very thoughtful about what was going on throughout.” India Boston’s sister Brittany disagrees, “You might as well say - he's just been rewarded for killing somebody - he's been rewarded for taking a 14 year old child's life.”

Williams did receive a sentence of ten years for the involuntary manslaughter conviction - with credit for the two and a half years he's already served. He was also found guilty of making false statements and reckless conduct. He received one year for the making false statements conviction that will be served concurrently.