When John "Doc" Williams came to court
this week to defend himself against a charge of
attempted second-degree murder, his future looked grim.
Prosecutors were looking to put him away for 10 years.
Williams was charged with shooting a man on May 10,
1986, in broad daylight. There was a host of
eyewitnesses, several of whom knew Williams from the
neighborhood. To make matters worse, Williams eluded
police for nearly three years before he was arrested
last March.
Then there was the victim. Michael Morris had been shot
four times - once in the face, once in the neck and
twice in the back. Doctors said it was a miracle he
lived.
Morris, a former semi-pro football player, was partially
paralyzed by the shooting. Wednesday, in District Judge
Jerome Winsberg's courtroom, the burly 35-year-old
clattered up to the witness stand on a pair of metal
crutches.
"I'll have to live with this the rest of my life, "
Morris told the jury.
Morris was acting as a good Samaritan when he was shot,
prosecutors said. He was standing outside Tony's Liquor
Store, 2723 S. Broad, when he heard a commotion inside.
When he turned to see what was going on, Williams came
running out of the store. Morris said when he tried to
stop him, Williams pulled a gun and fired twice. When
Morris fell to his stomach, Williams pumped two more
rounds into his back, Morris said.
But as quickly as prosecutors Jim Marchand and Anne
Wallis began building a case against Williams, public
defender Jeffrey Smith began tearing it down.
Williams, 41, a father of four, had a clean record,
Smith said. He was a medic. He was in the National
Guard. He never eluded police. In fact, he was in the
city nearly the whole time.
Morris' record wasn't so clean, Smith said. When Smith
asked Morris how he earned the nickname "Beretta, "
Morris said it was from playing baseball.
Smith then began putting pressure on the state's key
eyewitness, Alonzo Matherson. By the end of Smith's
cross-examination, it was hard to determine if Matherson
saw anything that day, much less Williams with a gun.
By the time court resumed Thursday morning, the district
attorney's office was ready to bargain. Prosecutors
offered two years in prison in exchange for a plea of
guilty to aggravated battery.
Williams accepted.
With credit for time served, Smith said Williams could
be released in time for Mardi Gras
