>> SUPERIOR COURT
It was a sad day in court for all parties involved, and even for some who weren’t involved, according to District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale.
On Oct. 29, Lisa Marie Williams, of Harrisburg Road, Milledgeville, pled guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide in the second degree. Because of the arranged negotiated plea, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Judge Alison T. Burleson sentenced Williams to 36 months, with the first 24 months to be spent in the Baldwin County Jail and the remainder on probation. The charges stemmed from an April 2, 2019 crash in Milledgeville in which Williams was the driver and three people were killed.
The three victims, Jesse Bryant, 29, Lizzie Reed, 68, and Mahlon Ruff, 77, were all residents of an assisted living home in the Putnam County side of Buckhead. Williams worked at the residence and knew them well.
Before she was sentenced in Baldwin County Superior Court, Williams apologized to the victims’ families, according to Barksdale.
“She said she cared about each of the victims and that she loved them,” he said. “It was a very emotional time for everyone in the courtroom.”
Barksdale said there was even another inmate sitting there waiting for his unrelated case to be heard, who also began crying when he heard Williams’ statements to the families.
On the day of the crash, Williams was driving the three victims, along with another resident in a Chevrolet Trailblazer along U.S. Hwy. 441 in Baldwin County when she lost control of the vehicle and it overturned, killing the three victims and injuring a fourth and herself.
Authorities originally believed Williams was driving under the influence of cocaine and she was charged in August 2019 and indicted in January 2020 on three counts of first-degree vehicular homicide as well as DUI (drugs), possession of cocaine, serious injury by vehicle, reckless driving, and failure to maintain lane.
After the toxicology report came back, she was later re-indicted on three misdemeanor counts of vehicular homicide in the second degree.
The GBI toxicologist reportedly said Williams had consumed cocaine, but it had been processed in her body and turned into metabolites, according to Barksdale.
“So, she had metabolites in her system and not cocaine itself,” Barksdale said. “The toxicologist would (only) say that, and I said this to Judge Burleson.”
Based on that evidence, a plea deal was made with the recommendation of the three-year sentence, Barksdale said, noting he negotiated the arrangements with Chief Public Defender John Bradley, and Judge Burleson accepted it in court.
“It was a very sad morning; it didn’t feel like justice was served in my opinion, but it was certainly the best we could do with the evidence we had.”