Update: Jeremy Williams convicted of Kamarie Holland’s murder; ‘There is not enough justice for what this monster did to this baby’

Chuck Williams
·8 min read
18

FINAL UPDATE

This morning, it took a Russell County jury about an hour to convict Jeremy Williams on four counts of felony murder.

He killed, raped and brutalized 5-year-old Kamarie Holland on December 13, 2021.

Here is how Russell County District Attorney Rick Chancey summed it up.

“I told the family of people involved with him, don’t expect an apology, don’t expect remorse,” Chancey said. “I don’t think he’ll ever truly apologize for what he’s done. I don’t think he has the ability to feel remorse. And I think you can just see in his eyes that he is what he is. And he’s on a different level of evil. But you can see it.”

Jeremy Williams bought an hour of 5-year-old Kamarie Hollands time. He purchased her for $2,500 for sex from the little girl’s mother – who has pled guilty to human trafficking and is serving a 20-year sentence.

What happened that day is unspeakable. And Williams in a meth-fueled sexual rage, put all of it on video shot from phone.

“There is not enough justice for what this monster did to this baby,” Lt. Steve Johnson commander of the Russell County Jail.

Johnson came in on Christmas night 2021 to take a five-hour taped confession from Williams. He confessed to a murder of his 1-month old son in Alaska for the sin of crying.

But the evidence of the rape, sodomy and murder of Kamarie stunned even the most seasoned deputies.

“When we opened that phone and we saw the crime videoed live as it occurred, it was more than what my folks at the time could really comprehend,” Sheriff Heath Taylor.

And Chancey asked 15 jurors – 12 on the jury and three alternates – to watch 11 minutes of that video before passing judgment on Williams.

After the verdict, Chancey spent some time talking to the jurors.

“The first thing I asked him was, ‘Could I’ve gotten by without the video?’ Because that’s been on my heart for two years: Is do I put them through that video or not?” Chancey said. “Because it’s you heard it. It’s bad and it’s worse than I can even say. And, I think every one of them said you don’t get the effect unless you see the video. So none of them, I think, felt like I should not have shown the video. They didn’t want to see it. They didn’t like seeing it, but they said it helped them understand that he was guilty of everything he was charged with.”

Kamarie was with her mother that night because the girl’s father, Corey Holland who had custody of Kamarie and her brother, violated a court order that prohibited Kristy Siple’s children from having any contact with her.

Siple, a prostitute, knew Williams and had let him babysit Kamarie while she was working.

Here’s the reason Holland says he violated the court order and let Siple have her child that night.

“You know, Kamarie had me wrapped around her finger,” Corey Holland said. “So, in the end, everything she wanted, I always wanted to give her. And she begged me to go. I didn’t want to upset my baby so I let her go.”

Taylor has been the one charged with keeping Williams safe in the Russell County Jail as the case worked through the system.

“We’ve had several, obviously, of the inmates in the facility that were wanting to get to him and have a, well, you know, a more prophetic justice type thing,” Taylor said. “But it’s our responsibility to keep him safe and it’s our responsibility to bring him to court and let him have the justice through our system. And that’s what we did.”

Chancey and Taylor stood in a Russell County cemetery back in December 2021 to seek justice for Kamarie Holland. There is video of them standing off to the side looking at Kamarie’s casket over the grave.

“I see and it’s probably your picture, I didn’t know somebody was taking pictures but from behind I can see that picture of the sheriff and I standing there looking toward the grave,” Chancey said. “Nah, we didn’t get justice. We need Kamarie back. That baby should not have gone through that, Chuck. I got the best I can do.”

The ordeal is not over. Monday morning, Williams will be back in front of Circuit Court Judge David Johnson for the sentencing phase. Williams waived his right for a jury to decide. The life or death decision now rests with Judge Johnson.

VERDICT UPDATE: A verdict has been reached in the trial of Jeremy Williams, the man who previously admitted to killing and raping 5-year-old Kamarie Holland.

The jury has found Williams guilty on four capitol charges — one for the murder of a child under 14, one that the death happened during a kidnapping, one that it happened during a rape, and the final one that it happened during the commission of sodomy.

Sentencing is set for Monday.

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (WRBL) — After three days of testimony, an 11-woman, four-man Russell County jury now has the fate of admitted child killer Jeremy Williams in their hands.

Williams is facing the possibility of the death penalty in the kidnapping, murder and rape of 5-year-old Kamarie Holland.

He is facing four capital charges — one for the murder of a child under 14, one that the death happened during a kidnapping, one that it happened during a rape, and the final one that it happened during the commission of sodomy.

The jury got the case about 10:30 a.m. after closing arguments and a final state witness.

District Attorney Rick Chancey closed by telling the jury about when he got the call that Kamarie’s body was found in Phenix City on Dec. 13, 2021. And what he saw in a basement of a home that night.

“You see a naked 5-year-old baby with her legs spread, blood coming out of her, in full rigor mortis,” Chancey said. “Once you see it you can’t unsee it. I will never unsee it.”

Those closings did not happen before the state presented one last witness — a 23 year-old women. She told the jury that Williams had raped and assaulted her when she was 5 and lived in Alaska.

The woman said she had not told anyone of the assaults — including her mother — until Russell County Sheriff’s Office investigator Brad Evans reached to her after Williams confessed to the crimes in December 2021.

“I was scared of what would happen if I told,” she told the jury. “He would try to hurt my mom and things would get worse.”

Her powerful testimony in a soft-spoken voice took less than 10 minutes. Williams’ attorneys asked no questions on cross examination.

The jury was forced to watch 11 minutes of video of Williams forcing Kamarie to give him oral sex and punching her in the face when she would bite him. The state elected not to show at least 20 more minutes of video after the jurors were opening disturbed and some weeping as the video played.

“We just added 15 people to the list of folks who saw that video, and now will never unsee it,” Chancey said. “For that I apologize.”

This trial is happening despite the fact that Williams admitted to killing and raping Kamarie Holland. He has entered a guilty plea in the case, but under Alabama law to get the death penalty, a jury trial must be held.

*That guilty plea – filed in the clerk’s office — was entered into evidence.

Williams’ attorneys, led by Chuck Floyd of Phenix City, were handcuffed by their client. Williams had instructed his attorneys not to object and not put up a defense. Time and time, Circuit Court Judge David Johnson asked Williams if that was his wish that his attorneys not object. Each time, Williams answered yes. At one one early in the trial, he told the judge, “I don’t want them to say nothing.”

Floyd said that Williams did not want the jury to have to listen to the evidence. His closing lasted for about five minutes.

“But that’s the law,” Floyd said. “I am really mad at the legislature for passing such a law. But y’all helped me understand the law. When we questioned y’all many of you raised your hands when asked if you believed people who were not guilty pled guilty. … Y’all helped me understand the law.”

Chancey thanked the jury for their service.

“Y’all can rest easy knowing an innocent man is not going to jail,” Chancey told the jurors, his voice breaking. “I can’t think of a word to describe, but for now let’s go with guilty.”

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