The BAKER Children - (2005) Marianna FL

A prosecutor says a Panhandle man killed his former girlfriend and
her three small children because he was angry about child support. Prosecutor
Larry Basford asked jurors to convict 25-year-old Wesley Williams on
four counts of first-degree murder during closing arguments of the
two-week trial on Thursday. Williams faces death if convicted of killing Danielle Baker, 19, and her children, Amad, 3, Amarion, 1, and Aaron, 3 weeks. Baker
was shot to death inside her Marianna apartment in 2005. The three boys
were suffocated together in a bathtub after being bound with duct tape. Williams' attorney says Williams had no reason to kill the children and that DNA evidence does not support a conviction.

UPDATED: Williams sentenced to 4 life terms for murder


Marianna man also gets 3 consecutive 30-year terms for child abuse


December 11, 2009 09:51:00 AM


MARIANNA — The grandmother of the three children murdered by Wesley Williams said Friday that she does not want the killer to die.
“Let him live, let him live,” Doreen Jackson said during Williams’ sentencing in Marianna. “Because he needs to see what he done. … He needs to feel what he done.”
Circuit Judge William Wright gave Williams four consecutive life sentences for the deaths and three consecutive sentences of 30 years each for aggravated child abuse.
Williams was convicted Oct. 2 of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Jackson’s daughter, Danielle Baker, 19, and three of Baker’s children, Amad, 3, Amarion, 1, and Aaron, 3 weeks. Baker was shot to death inside her Cottondale Village apartment March 17, 2005. The three boys suffocated after being bound with duct tape.
Williams fathered two of the boys.
“It was so cruel what happened to my babies,” Jackson said.
Williams chose not to speak at the sentencing.
Danielle’s father, Levon Baker, called the crime heinous.
“My children didn’t deserve that,” he said. “I’ll never get to see my daughter again. To tell her I love her, to see her smile.”
Wright previously ruled out the death penalty in the case because, under Florida law, prosecutors must prove Williams’ level of involvement in the crime.
Wright determined that prosecutors had proved Williams was present at the scene but did not prove he physically did the killings.
Deputy Public Defender Walter Smith said he had hoped the case would go before Florida’s Supreme Court, where it had a better chance of being overturned but because Williams was not sentenced to death the case will now go to Florida’s First District Court of Appeals.
At trial, Smith tried to prove that Williams was not present during the murder and that others were responsible for the slayings.
Williams was linked to the crimes by a single limb hair found on the tape used to bind Amarion that was matched to him by mitochondrial DNA, a less unique form of DNA that is shared by Williams’ relatives and others. Two sets of nuclear DNA, which is exclusive to an individual, from unknown men were found on the tape as well.
Investigators also found that Williams’ cell phone made a call from the Marianna area shortly before the killings, at a time when Williams says he was home in Sneads. Three witnesses said Williams told them he was connected to the crime.
During sentencing, Wright said the slayings called out for the death penalty and that he believed in the death penalty but that he had sworn an oath to follow the law, which required him to sentence Williams to life and not death.
“Mr. Williams, may God have mercy on your soul but again I cannot understand the actions you took that night,” Wright said.
http://www.newsherald.com/articles/williams-79799-life-marianna.html