BLACK WACKO Semmie Williams is COMPETENT FOR TRIAL & DEATH PENALTY; charged with murder in the death of 14 yo WM Ryan Rogers riding bicycle

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Senior Reporter

Florida man charged in teen's 'unprovoked' murder found competent for trial​


Semmie Williams is charged with murder in the death of Ryan Rogers​


By Michael Ruiz | Fox News


The Florida homeless man accused of fatally stabbing a 14-year-old Palm Beach Gardens boy has been found competent to stand trial by two psychologists.

Semmie Williams, a 39-year-old vagrant with a criminal record across multiple states and whose lawyer says he suffers from long-standing mental illness, is accused of stabbing Ryan Rogers in an unprovoked attack on the evening of Nov. 15, while the teen was out riding his bicycle.

The psychologists’ reports were not immediately made public. The authors told the Palm Beach Post they could not discuss their findings without a court order, and the 15th Circuit State Attorney's Office declined to comment, citing its policy on pending litigation.




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Semmie Williams, a 39-year-old vagrant with a criminal record across multiple states and whose lawyer says he suffers from long-standing mental illness, is accused of stabbing Ryan Rogers in an unprovoked attack on the evening of Nov. 15, while the teen was out riding his bicycle.


Semmie Williams, a 39-year-old vagrant with a criminal record across multiple states and whose lawyer says he suffers from long-standing mental illness, is accused of stabbing Ryan Rogers in an unprovoked attack on the evening of Nov. 15, while the teen was out riding his bicycle. ( Ryan Rogers, SEMMIE LEE WILLIAMS JR)
RYAN ROGERS MURDER: FLORIDA POLICE IDENTIFY ‘DANGEROUS MONSTER’ ARRESTED IN UNPROVOKED STABBING

Dr. Ian Lamoureux, a board-certified forensic psychiatrist based in Arizona, explained that the determination means the two evaluators found Williams to be both capable of assisting his defense and of understanding the "nature and objective" of the proceedings against him.

That means comprehending basic concepts, such as that the prosecutor is not trying to help him, that his defense attorney is working to get him the best possible outcome, and that he will be tried before a jury of their peers, he told Fox News Digital.

"It suggests that he’s not so profoundly impaired by his illness that he’s, for example, hearing voices and would be talking to unseen others during the court proceedings," he said.

Williams’ attorney, Scott Pribble, argued in February filings that his client was far from able to "meaningfully participate" or "aid counsel." He has been charged with first-degree murder and could face the death penalty.

502021CF009692AXXXMB_106 by Fox News on Scribd

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[The Jared Lee Loughner shooting of Gabby Giffords case was about forced medication which was legalized to help the accused become competent and fit for trial. Judge John Roll was the real target for cases he was set to decide on.
If Williams is seeing a Psychiatrist then he is receiving Psychiatric drugs.
https://nypost.com/2011/07/26/court-backs-forced-medication-for-jared-lee-loughner/ ]
 
CONTINUED

RYAN ROGERS MURDER: SUSPECTED KILLER'S APPARENT YOUTUBE CHANNEL REVEALS TROUBLED PAST

Even if Williams had been found incompetent, Lamoureux said that after treatment in jail or a mental health facility, he could have potentially been reevaluated and found fit to stand trial.


Pribble conceded as much in a February filing: "[Williams’] competency to proceed has been the subject of extensive litigation in a previous criminal case, and he was ultimately adjudicated competent to proceed in that case only after a lengthy hospitalization."

Even being deemed competent for trial, however, does not prevent his lawyers from using an insanity defense.

"The insanity defense is really going to boil down to what precisely he was thinking at the time," Lamoureux said.

    • A probable cause affidavit states Williams was arrested in Miami more than two weeks after the attack in Palm Beach Gardens. (Fox News Digital)

Ryan left his home on his bicycle at around 6:39 on Nov. 15, according to authorities. When he failed to return by 10:30 p.m., his parents reported him missing.

Court documents allege that Williams killed him around 7:31 p.m., when they crossed paths under an I-95 overpass in Palm Beach Gardens. Minutes earlier, surveillance video shows a man believed to be Williams approaching the area on Central Boulevard, where police recovered Ryan’s body.

RYAN ROGERS MURDER: DOCUMENTS SUGGEST RACIAL MOTIVE IN TEEN'S PALM BEACH GARDENS STABBING

Investigators said they found Williams’ DNA on a pair of headphones left at the scene and Ryan’s blood on a bandana in the suspect’s possession at the time of his arrest, more than two weeks later.


In an earlier interview with police, Williams denied any role in the crime. But he allegedly confessed to jail personnel.

"Yea, I killed that motherf-----, and I’ll kill you too,"
he allegedly told a guard, according to court filings.


Semmie Williams Incident Re... by Fox News
After his arrest, Williams was accused of attacking jail guards, calling one a "White devil," and, in a statement during the fingerprinting process, indicating that the attack on Ryan may have had a racial motive.

"While fingerprinting his left hand, I asked him if he understood the charges," Officer Michael McCabe wrote in an incident report. "He stated, ‘Yea, murder, because of what they did to Black people about giving them syphilis.'"

Williams allegedly tried to break free from the officer’s grip but failed. Other guards helped place him in handcuffs.

He is being held without bail.

RYAN ROGERS MURDER SUSPECT SEMMIE WILLIAMS HAD LENGTHY FLORIDA RAP SHEET, CONVICTIONS IN GEORGIA

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Palm Beach Gardens Police Chief Clinton Shannon originally described Ryan’s slaying as "a random act" with no discernable motive.

He already had a lengthy rap sheet in Florida as well as records in California and Georgia, where he most recently was accused of battering a senior citizen.

A YouTube channel attributed to Williams showed hundreds of short cellphone videos in which he appears to make delusional claims. One, on the night of the murder, was titled "First Blood 1982." The following day, after Ryan’s brutal stabbing death, he posted another claiming, "my next movie is gonna be ‘Blade 3:16.’"

YouTube did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about the channel but removed it in December.

Lamoureux said the videos may be evidence that Williams does suffer from mental illness and that he may be "incredibly paranoid," but it’s not uncommon for mentally ill people, including those diagnosed with schizophrenia, and still be found competent to stand trial.

"Someone could be quite, quite dramatically impaired by mental illness around the time of the offense but then, due to either a combination of being off of drugs or on medications in the jail…they can be competent in the here and the now," he said.

During the proceedings however, Lamoureux said, Williams’ lawyers could try and revive the competency issue.



"These cases often are not very streamlined, especially when they're this high level of charges where obviously the prosecution's going to want to be very confident in their verdict," he said. "Assuming he is convicted, they don't want that verdict to potentially be overturned by a retroactive competency issue.
 

June 10, 2022, 2:40 PM ET

Judge Finds Homeless Man With History Of Delusions Competent For Trial In Teen Boy's Murder​


A judge agreed with experts that Semmie Williams — despite his belief that he is being followed by Nazis and the KKK — has "improved dramatically" and can now stand trial for the 2021 stabbing death of 14-year-old Ryan Rogers.


By Jax Miller

Semmie Lee Williams Jr Pd


Semmie Lee Williams Jr. Photo: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office

A judge has ruled that the Florida drifter accused of murdering a 14-year-boy who disappeared during a bicycle ride is competent to stand trial.
Semmie Lee Williams, 39, stands accused of fatally stabbing high school freshman Ryan Rogers, whose body was found near the I-95 overpass in Palm Beach Gardens on Nov. 16, one day after he disappeared.
According to court records reviewed by Oxygen.com, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Charles Burton agreed with two court-appointed psychologists who independently determined that Williams was mentally fit to stand trial last March.

Tuesday’s ruling comes after much resistance from Williams’ public defenders, who previously argued that their defendant has “long-standing and persistent mental illness,” including a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
According to the order to determine competency, the two court-appointed psychologists who deemed Williams competent, Dr. Stephen Alexander and Dr. Adam White, agreed with the defense that Williams lived with schizophrenia. However, Judge Burton determined Williams has since been able to keep his composure in court.

“Certainly, the court was able to observe his demeanor during the court proceedings and notes that his demeanor was appropriate at all times,” said Burton.

Dr. Gretchen Moy, who evaluated Williams for the defense, stated that Williams “discussed a group of people that have been harassing him,” including “the KKK, Free Masons, Nazis, Neighborhood Watch, the Illuminati and gang bangers.” Moy connected the defendant’s beliefs to his nomadic lifestyle, as Williams claimed to have moved frequently to hide from these groups.

According to the defense, Dr. Moy had “multiple sessions” with Williams, and stated that Williams “would not share his irrational ideas or delusional beliefs with Dr. White or Dr. Alexander because he knew that it could result in him being found incompetent to proceed.”
Dr. White, on the other hand, said Williams did, in fact, discuss “many of his delusions.”

“There is no doubt that the defendant suffers from a long-standing mental illness. This trial is a long way off, and who knows what the future holds,” Judge Burton wrote in his ruling. “However, the defendant is medication compliant and his symptoms have improved dramatically since the day of his arrest, according to his doctors.”

Williams’ mental health has spurred questions since his Dec. 1 arrest, when authorities found a bandana containing both the suspect’s and the victim’s blood in Williams’ backpack. The murder suspect told arresting officers that he was being placed under arrest for murder, “because of what they did to Black people about giving them syphilis.”
Williams soon attempted to tackle one of the officers to the ground.

Judge Burton stated in his ruling that “the court’s obligation is to focus on the defendant's mental state at the time of the mental health evaluations and not at the time of the arrest.”

Ryan Rogers Missing Poster


Ryan Rogers missing poster Photo: Palm Beach Gardens PD

Prior to his arrest, Williams regularly posted videos to social media with a potpourri of claims, including that police put implants in his eyes and his deep-seated beliefs that he was being stalked, persecuted and sexually assaulted by strangers and cults.

The suspect has a lengthy criminal history, including the 2014 beating and strangulation of an elderly man who was left to die in a ditch, as reported by NBC West Palm Beach affiliate WPTV. In that case, Williams was found unfit to stand trial before being restored to competency two years later. He was mandated to spend the next two years in a residential facility for those with “severe and persistent mental illness” from 2018 to 2020.

Just one day after Ryan Rogers’ murder, Williams posted a video claiming someone attacked him the previous night and that “they had people ride past me on bikes, and I’ve been getting physically assaulted.”
Ryan Rogers was last seen on the evening of Nov. 15 leaving his Alton neighborhood home for a bike ride. His body was found the next day, and it was determined that he'd sustained stab wounds to the face and head.

Surveillance video and cell phone data put Williams and Rogers on the same street on the night of the murder, not far from where Rogers’ body was discovered the next day.
Earlier this year, prosecutors announced their intent to seek the death penalty in Williams’ case.
Williams is expected back in court for a status hearing on June 21.
 
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