Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 25

Heading: Herman Williams

Text: On February 3, 1984, Herman Williams and an accomplice (who was a minor and thus not a co-defendant) broke into the Spencer home. Williams was armed with a handgun. They went there to rob one of the family members who was not yet home. There were six people at the Spencer home at the time. Williams hit one person in the face with the handgun. Benjamin Spencer, an older handicapped man, awoke and struggled with Williams. Benjamin died seventeen days later in the hospital from an infection resulting from the release of contaminated materials from his bowels into his bloodstream. Williams and his accomplice took money, jewelry, a case of wine, and a television set. Benjamin's daughter selected a photo of Williams and said that he had killed their father. Later, the accomplice gave a statement claiming that Williams forced him to participate in the robbery and murder. At trial, in response to the State's promise not to move for waiver of juvenile jurisdiction and not to seek the maximum sentence, the accomplice testified against Williams. Williams was convicted of murder, felony murder, burglary, robbery, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. For murder, Williams was sentenced to life with a thirty-year parole bar. For robbery, Williams was sentenced to a consecutive fifteen-year term with a seven-and-one-half-year parole bar. For unlawful possession, he was given a concurrent four-year term, and he was sentenced to a seven-year concurrent term for the other weapons offense. Williams was twenty-two at the time of the murder. At the time of the offense, Williams lived with his mother and had been unemployed for about four years. Williams left school at the age of fifteen and is barely literate. He had attended a school for those classified as emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded. Also, Williams scored low on I.Q. tests, and a doctor viewed him as not mentally retarded, but culturally retarded. He has an extensive criminal record, with convictions for burglary, theft, and breaking and entering, as well as five disorderly persons convictions. The AOC has classified this case as having aggravating factor c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony, and c(5)(h), the catch-all factor.