Lawyers: Odell Williams shot at men accused in his death

Odell Williams followed five alleged gang members on Nov. 4 and shot at them “two or three times” before he was fatally shot in the head, according to lawyers representing the men accused of killing the Chester City Council member.

Williams was after the men because they were set to commit an armed robbery against a rival gang at a home near Williams’ business and home, prosecutors said in court.

Bonds were given to three of the four men who appeared in court Tuesday, including one, Terrance Buchanan, who police say told them about the plot that led to the arrests. The bonds were set even though prosecutors argued the gang members are a threat to public safety. Williams’ family also urged that the bond be denied.

Odell Williams gave to his community his whole life, his family said, while the suspects accused in the crime are “mean and hateful.” Letting them loose would be a “ridiculous shame” in the Chester community, which has been “torn apart” by the killing, the family said.

Before Tuesday, police had only said the Williams’ shooting came after an earlier incident between him and the suspects. Authorities had never said publicly that Williams had shot at the suspects before being killed. One defense lawyer claimed in court Tuesday that prosecutors “do not have a very strong case” against at least four of the defendants because of evidence that Williams had followed and shot at the suspects.

Christopher Moore, 18, was charged with murder after police alleged he was the triggerman in the Williams shooting. The other four accused of being involved before and after the crime – Derrick Dixon, Quinton McClinton, DeAngelo Roseboro and Buchanan – asked for bond Tuesday after sitting in jail for three months.

The crime

The week after Williams was shot with an assault rifle, the five men that prosecutors say are “documented gang members” from the Roundtree Circle Gang in Chester were charged with murder and accessory to murder before the fact.

But the incident that ended with Williams’ killing started two weeks before, 6th Circuit assistant solicitor Julie Hall said in court Tuesday. In October, a house on Holmes Road north of Chester’s city limits near the Williams’ home and business was “shot up,” Hall said. The house belonged to a rival gang, Hall said.

Then on Nov. 4, the five suspects were in a borrowed truck parked at Williams’ concrete business in Chester “with the intention of committing armed robbery” against the “rival gang house,” Hall said. Williams’ wife saw the suspects parked in the truck and called her husband because she was concerned about her safety.

Odell Williams then arrived and followed the five after they fled in the truck, Hall said.

During that chase, Williams apparently shot at the suspects “two or three times,” said Nathan Sheldon, the Rock Hill lawyer appointed to represent Dixon, 18, who is accused of helping the shooter flee after Williams was gunned down.

Williams shooting at the suspects is a “bizarre fact pattern,” Sheldon said in court. Sheldon said prosecutors now have a weak case against four defendants.

“Only one person (Moore) shot, but four others were charged,” Sheldon said.

On Nov. 4, after the chase started, the truck with the other defendants slowed down to let Moore out near Roundtree Circle so that Moore could “lay in wait” for Williams, said Hall. Williams continued to follow the truck, which doubled back to Roundtree Circle after the pursuit. Near the intersection of Parkway Drive and Roundtree Circle, Williams was ambushed by Moore and shot in the head, Hall said.

Police recovered at least 17 assault rifle shell casings at the crime scene. After he was shot, Williams crashed his car into a nearby house.

After the arrest of the five suspects more than a week after the killing, Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood declared “war on gangs in Chester” when police investigating the crime allegedly received death threats from gang members who vowed retaliation for the investigation and arrests.

Odell Williams’ family outrage

Coretta Williams, one of Odell Williams’ daughters, pleaded with visiting Circuit Judge Benjamin Culbertson of Georgetown not to let any of the defendants out on bond, saying that the gang members were “trying to take over” Chester and had showed they are “mean and hateful.” Odell Williams served Chester and protected the streets as a police officer while the gang members are trying to tear Chester apart, Coretta Williams said in court.

Releasing the suspects would be a “disservice to the community by allowing gangs to take over,” Coretta Williams said.

Odell Williams was a retired Chester County paramedic and Chester policeman. He served on city council starting in 1997 while at the same time working at a concrete business. LaTeasha Williams, a daughter-in-law of Odell Williams, wore a T-shirt with his picture on it that said simply: “Hardest working man in town.” She argued against setting bond for gang members whom testimony showed rarely, if ever, have worked.

One of the accused, McClinton, 26, who was out on bond for a shooting at the time of the killing and hid in his mother’s house to avoid arrest, lives right around the corner from the Williams family and “promotes and displays gang colors,” LaTeasha Williams said in court.

Bonds

Moore, who police say was the shooter, did not ask for a bond hearing Tuesday. His lawyer, 6th Circuit Public Defender William Frick, said that he has not had a chance to look through materials provided to all the defendants last week by prosecutors.

Hall, the prosecutor, argued in court that all the defendants showed through the brutal slaying that each is a threat to public safety.

Culbertson, the judge, denied bond Tuesday to McClinton, 26, who is accused of securing the guns and the vehicle that all five men used during Williams’ killing. McClinton, with a criminal record dating back to childhood, is also charged with misprision of a felony because police say he knew that Williams was gunned down and failed to report the crime.

Culbertson set a $40,000 bond for Buchanan, also charged with misprision of a felony. Buchanan “enabled police to put it all together” in a detailed statement after he was caught, Buchanan’s lawyer said.

“He spoke with the police and told them what happened,” the lawyer, John Shiflet, said in court about Buchanan.

Dixon and Roseboro had originally been charged with accessory before the fact to murder, which can carry a life prison sentence. But each now faces accessory after the fact, which carries a maximum of 15 years in prison. Hall said Dixon and Roseboro came back after the shooting to pick up Moore so that all could elude arrest.

“He (Dixon) knew the shooter shot him, he knew he killed him, and he helped him get away,” Hall said in court. “That makes him a very big danger to the community.”

Judge Culbertson set bonds of $50,000 each for Dixon and Roseboro, 20.

No trial date has been set.

This story was originally published February 10, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Lawyers: Odell Williams shot at men accused in his death."