Columbus man gunned down his stepfather over alleged child abuse, police say
Believing his stepfather had molested his 9-year-old son, a Columbus man shot the stepfather multiple times in the child’s presence before ejecting the pistol’s clip and handing the weapon to his mother, police said Friday.
Marlon Jarrell Reese may have had additional motivation to shoot 70-year-old Walter Williams, his defense attorney said after Reese’s preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court: Relatives have alleged that when Reese was a child, Williams verbally and physically abused Reese and a sibling.
But detectives testified Friday that so far they have not confirmed accusations that Williams “inappropriately” touched Reese’s son. Child advocates at Columbus’ Children’s Treehouse interviewed the boy, but he was so distraught over what he’d witnessed that the results were inconclusive, police Cpl. Robert Nicholas testified in Columbus Recorder’s Court.
Besides murder, Reese is charged with three counts of obstructing police for fighting with them at the city’s public safety center as they tried to arrest him, Nicholas said. Reese told them he could not believe he would be charged with a crime for killing a child molester, the detective said.
Nicholas said Reese’s mother, Cynthia Williams, told officers Reese twice came to the Williams’ home on Mehaffey Drive on Monday, furious at what he believed his stepfather had done. The first time was around 8:30 in the morning, when his mother was able to calm him down and persuade him to leave, she said.
He returned around 4:30 p.m. with a gun, confronting Williams in a hallway as the stepfather came out of a bedroom, and shot him repeatedly, the mother told police. Then he locked the slide on the pistol, ejected the magazine, and handed the gun to his mother, who set it on a washing machine, Nicholas said.
Officers responding at 4:45 p.m. to the mother’s 911 call found Reese standing outside the home, where he initially claimed an “active shooter” was holding his mother hostage inside, but later admitted what he had done, Nicholas said.
The arrest
Much of Friday’s hearing focused on Reese’s altercation with police. Nicholas said Reese was brought to police headquarters with shackles on his legs and plastic “flex cuffs” similar to zip ties on his wrists, and complained the cuffs were too tight, so Nicholas had them removed, the detective said.
When Nicholas later got up to leave the room, Reese stood and demanded the door remain open, then started punching Nicholas in the head, the investigator said. An officer outside tried to intervene, and Reese assaulted him, too, Nicholas said, adding a third officer was injured trying to handcuff Reese.
Nicholas was examined only by paramedics, but the other two officers had to seek followup medical treatment, he said. All have returned to work.
Reese, 36, initially was charged with three felony counts of obstruction, but one was reduced to a misdemeanor Friday at the prosecutor’s request.
Reese’s attorney, Stacey Jackson, asked Judge Julius Hunter to set bonds on the obstruction charges, but Hunter refused, sending the case to Muscogee Superior Court without bond and ordering Reese to have no contact with his mother.
Jackson said after the hearing that he believes Reese may use the defense that he was acting to protect his son, as Georgia law allows one to use force to defend another person.
Jackson said he did not know how Reese’s son came to be at the scene of the shooting, whether he was there already, or whether Reese brought him.
The attorney said relatives told him Walter Williams used to beat Reese and a sibling when they were children.
He will ask a Superior Court judge to set bonds for Reese as the case proceeds, Jackson said.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 11:45 AM.