Convicted child killer Delilah Williams told a prison guard at the Federal Detention Center here, "I killed a baby, and I’m going to get away with it," the guard testified in U.S. District Court Friday.
The guard, Jojo Munoz, was testifying in the sentencing phase of the trial for Delilah Williams’ husband, former Schofield Barracks soldier Naeem Williams.
Williams, 34, is facing the death penalty for killing his 5-year-old daughter, Talia Williams, in the family’s military quarters at Wheeler Army Airfield in 2005.
In exchange for a 20-year prison sentence, Delilah Williams pleaded guilty to murder in 2006 for killing her stepdaughter through months of assault and torture. U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled Thursday that defense lawyers can argue to the jury that Delilah Williams is an equally culpable defendant in both of her husband’s murder counts.
A federal court jury found Naeem Williams guilty earlier this month of capital murder for killing his daughter, also through assault, torture and child abuse. The same jury is being asked to decide whether Williams deserves to be put to death.
Munoz said Naeem Williams has acclimated well to his incarceration and has been "pretty much like a model inmate" in the nine years he has been in the detention center. He said he has never had any problems with Williams, but has had problems with Delilah Williams.
In April 2009, Munoz said Delilah Williams and another female inmate appeared to be taking turns on a computer. He said he told them to stop and reported the incident to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ Special Investigative Services to check on any unusual activity involving either of the two inmates.
With prior approval, inmates at the detention center can use computers available to them to access the Internet, Munoz said.
He said Delilah Williams later confronted him by "cussing at me and calling me a snitch." He said Delilah Williams also threatened to "kick his a–" and challenged him to ask her why she was at the facility. That’s when he said Delilah Williams told him she had killed a baby and gotten away with it.
Munoz said he believed she told him about being a baby killer to get under his skin and did not mention it in his incident report.
Delilah Williams talked about the incident differently in her testimony in March during her husband’s trial and said it was Munoz who called her a baby killer. She also said she threw a bowl of food at him.
Memnar Grayton, who ran the detention center as supervisor of the institution from 2002 until last year, said Delilah Williams was written up for the attempted assault of a staff member for the Munoz incident and for other infractions.
During the sentencing phase, Naeem Williams’ lawyers can present testimony and evidence they want the jury to consider as mitigating factors against imposing the death penalty.
Under the law a jury can consider whether an equally culpable defendant is not being punished with death.
