The accused kidnapper and murderer of an 81-year-old Leesburg woman, who contends it was actually another carjacker who abducted them both and killed her, has been ruled competent to represent himself at his capital murder trial in April, according to Lake County courthouse records.
The ruling for Donald Otis Williams, 52, who is accused in the 2010 death of Janet Patrick, comes after Circuit Court Judge Mark Nacke postponed the suspect's trial from January to April 15, after deciding there should be more updated mental evaluations.
Williams' request to represent himself came after he told Nacke, who's presiding over the case, he was concerned about the assistance of the Public Defender's Office.
"I'd rather walk to the gallows than have the public defender represent me," said Williams in an earlier court hearing.
The trial had been scheduled first for October of last year, but pushed to January after the Public Defender's Office asked for more time to determine if "severe injuries" suffered by Williams led to neurological problems which could be used in his defense.
In his ruling, the judge also upheld Williams' request to use insanity as a defense.
Williams, who is also charged with robbery, is being held without bail in the Lake County jail.
According to the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Patrick's decomposed body was discovered Oct. 26, 2010, in a wooded area of Polk County, several days after she vanished from a Publix parking lot in Leesburg on Oct. 18. Security cameras allegedly showed Williams leaving the grocery store with the victim and climbing into her white Chevrolet Impala.
Williams told detectives he was helping Patrick buy groceries when a carjacker abducted them, put them in the trunk and drove them around. Williams also contended that the unidentified, dark-skinned carjacker drugged him, killed Patrick and forced him to dump her body in the woods near the Polk-Osceola county line.
A cause of death was never determined. However, detectives have said Patrick's credit cards were found in Williams' wallet and he had borrowed a shovel from an acquaintance.
Assistant State Attorney Bill Gross, who's prosecuting the case, is out of the country and couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Williams has a long criminal record, including an accusation of sexually assaulting a woman in 2000 at a Walgreens pharmacy store after he drove her to a church. A plea deal in that case resulted in a carjacking charge because of the victim's reluctance to testify, officials said.
http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/...eb2013williams
Bookmarks