An abusive lodger who murdered his landlady tried to person constabulary she had killed herself by handing them an unfulfilled termination enactment she had written years earlier aft the decease of her two-year-old son.
Terri Jo Williams, 65, had been trying to evict James Hicks from her Florida location and was successful tribunal connected the time of her decease wherever Hicks, 63, was owed to look proceedings for assaulting her.
Hicks told constabulary she was his 'best friend' and helium had recovered the grandma drowned successful a fountain extracurricular the Pensacola bungalow they had shared for 8 years.
But helium was sentenced to beingness successful situation connected Tuesday aft a pathologist told a tribunal determination was nary h2o successful her lungs and she had been severely beaten earlier being asphyxiated.
'Love you ever girl, remainder successful paradise,' person Melanie Wright wrote connected her obituary page. 'You yet person Jason successful your arms again.'
James Edward Hicks claimed that helium had recovered Terri Jo Williams dormant aft she drowned herself successful a tiny pond extracurricular the location they shared successful Pensacola, Florida
The much-loved grandma had been asphyxiated by the lodger she was trying to evict
Police responding to a neighbor's 911 telephone recovered the mother-of-three look down successful the tiny h2o diagnostic adjacent to her beforehand doorway connected August 12, 2022.
Hicks told constabulary that helium had recovered her determination and 'insisted' they look successful her car, wherever they recovered intoxicant connected the rider floorboard, and a azygous pill connected the driver's seat.
She was pronounced dormant astatine the country and pathologist Deanna Oleske recovered her decease to beryllium a homicide by asphyxiation, noting 2 breached ribs, abrasions connected her arms, and bruising connected the backmost of her head.
During a constabulary interrogation a week later, Hicks gave officers a 'suicide note' helium claimed to person recovered successful the home's laundry country 2 days aft her death.
'He presented the missive arsenic being hand-written by (Williams) containing suicidal statements,' the tribunal learned from the Pensacola Police Department affidavit
'When (Hicks) presented the missive lone fractional of the leafage was present, with the bottommost missing arsenic though it was torn off.'
But investigators had already photographed the missive aft uncovering it among her papers during a hunt of her chamber connected the time of her death.
The photograph revealed the missing bottommost fractional of the enactment successful which Williams had written 'It doesn't assistance Jason died yesterday' - referring to Williams' two-year-old lad who had died successful 1985.
Williams was recovered dormant successful a 'decorative eater feature' extracurricular the beforehand doorway of her home
Hicks handed constabulary what helium claimed was a termination note, but they discovered she had written decades earlier aft the decease of her two-year-old son, Jason
'James Hicks had intentionally removed portion of the enactment that proved erstwhile Terri Williams had written it,' Assistant State Attorney Matt Gordon told the assemblage astatine Escambia County Court.
'He had done truthful to corroborate his assertion that she committed suicide.'
The tribunal heard that Williams had met her slayer erstwhile they were co-workers astatine the Florida-based Publix supermarket chain, and she had invited him to sub-let a country successful her home.
Immediately aft her decease Hicks sent her a substance connection asking 'Where are you? You OK … substance me,' and helium told constabulary that they 'communicated astir each day'.
But Williams had been trying to evict Hicks from the house, and constabulary recovered a diary she had kept documenting a bid of carnal attacks by her lodger.
A forensic probe of his telephone and recovered lone 2 different messages betwixt the pair.
Neighbors told investigators that they often heard arguments coming from wrong the single-story location and that Williams had described Hicks arsenic abusive.
'The astir telling injuries were bruising to the musculature of her neck, injuries to her arms and 4 fractured ribs connected the near broadside of her chest, ribs that had been breached portion she was inactive alive,' Gordon told the court.
'Dr Oleske recovered that Terri Jo Williams had been murdered.
'She recovered that she had been physically asphyxiated, meaning that airflow had been blocked done an lawsuit which enactment capable unit connected her pharynx and/or thorax that made to wherever she was incapable to breathe.'
Williams near 2 surviving sons and 5 grandchildren, and her household wrote that her 'proudest accomplishments, hands down, were her children'.
'The pridefulness she exuded erstwhile talking astir them was 2nd to none.
Williams near 2 surviving sons and 5 grandchildren, and her household wrote that her 'proudest accomplishments, hands down, were her children'
'Throughout their lives, Terri treasured her relation arsenic parent to Kevin and Bryan, and by extension, to their families and her 5 grandchildren.'
In their obituary tribute they described her arsenic 'strong, funny, hard-working and exceedingly caring and loving'.
'As evidenced by her lifelong postulation of Native American keepsakes, she shared the taste sanctity of quality and animals. Terri was a compassionate person of animals, large and small.
'Any stray that mightiness transverse her way recovered a loving home.'
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