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Williams sentenced to up to 50 years in shooting case

Antoine Williams talks to the judge before sentencing for second-degree murder Friday morning in Floyd County District Court. At right is one of his attorneys, Steven Kloberdanz. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Antoine Williams talks to the judge before sentencing for second-degree murder Friday morning in Floyd County District Court. At right is one of his attorneys, Steven Kloberdanz.
Press photo by Bob Steenson
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Antoine Williams was sentenced to up to 50 years in prison Friday for the second-degree murder of a Mason City man in June in Charles City.

According to Iowa sentencing guidelines, he will have to serve a minimum of 35 years before becoming eligible for parole or early release.

In a statement before sentencing, Williams said he wanted to apologize to the family of the victim, Nathaniel Fleming, but he repeated the argument he had made at trial that he shot Fleming because he feared for his own life.

He also said that his race was an issue in the case.

Williams, who is African-American, said he was “demonized” from the beginning.

“I’m just getting handed these decisions really based on what I look like,” he said. “Race definitely played a big part in this. … Now I gotta’ go spend so many years in prison because y’all couldn’t find out what was true and what wasn’t true.”

District Court Judge Rustin Davenport sentenced Williams after ruling against a defense motion that included arguments that Williams had been denied a fair trial because the potential jury pool was not representative of the community.

Williams’ defense team had raised the argument before that that their client was denied a fair trial under the state and federal constitutions because there were no African-Americans on his jury and just two out of 138 potential jurors who identified their race on a jury form had self-identified as African American.

They included that among several arguments in a motion for a new trial or arrest of judgment that they filed earlier in the week.

Davenport said Friday that his review of his previous rulings showed that “the defendant’s right to a fair trial was not violated,” and he denied the defense motion.

There were two victim’s statement read in court before sentencing, from one of Fleming’s sisters and another from a cousin. The two family members listened to the hearing by phone, and their statements were read in court by Janelle Herrmann, the county victim witness coordinator.

The sister, who was identified as J.L. Fleming, said she wanted to let the court know how much Fleming was loved by his family.

“We are a large, yet close family and all miss his smile and ability to light up an entire room with his comical character and sweet nature,” the statement said. “There is no excuse for taking another human life, leaving a person’s family to feel lost, empty and numb.”

The other statement, by Fleming’s cousin, identified as Natrua, said that her life changed forever when she saw her cousin at the funeral home.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” the statement read in court said. “I wanted this to be a mistake. I looked at his cold, bruised body. It certainly looked like Nathaniel, (but) what happened to the sparkle he had in his eyes, the radiant smile, the warmth and tenderness of his touch?

“Nathaniel’s life was tragically cut short by the willful actions of a cruel stranger who took it upon himself to murder an innocent guy,” the two-page statement included. “For the rest of my life I will feel the guilt that I wasn’t there to stop Nathaniel from going to Iowa. He died terrified and alone with an evil stanger.”

Judge Davenport sentenced Williams to the required term of up to 50 years in prison, with 70 percent (35 years) required to be served before he will be eligible for parole.

He also ordered Williams to submit to DNA testing and ordered him to pay restitution of $28,461 to the Iowa Crime Victim Compensation Program, and ordered him to pay restitution of $150,000 to Fleming’s heirs — two children age 13 and 14.

Davenport denied a request by the prosecution that Williams also be ordered to pay court costs including the cost of his court-appointed attorneys.

“The court finds that given the sentence there is no reasonable ability to pay court-appointed attorney fees,” he said.

Williams was originally charged with first-degree murder for the June 30 shooting death of Fleming in Charles City.

During his trial, Williams testified that he shot Fleming, but that he did so in self-defense because he feared Fleming was reaching for a gun to shoot him first.

The prosecution argued that Williams planned to kill Fleming, waiting for him to return to a parking lot then approaching him with the intent to shoot him.

After a Floyd County District Court trial lasting five days in October, the jury found Williams guilty of second-degree murder.

 

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