The 2024 murder of Yolonda Williams unfolded before relatives who tried to stop Jermaine Williams, now convicted and facing a possible death sentence.
BUNNELL, Fla. — A 14-year-old boy tried to intervene as his father attacked his mother outside their Florida home. Moments later, the accused man’s own father arrived, drew a gun and threatened to shoot his son unless he stopped. Those family members became witnesses to the killing at the center of a capital murder case now approaching sentencing.
Yolonda Williams, 50, died after the Aug. 2, 2024, attack on South Pine Street in Bunnell. Her husband, Jermaine Mandell Williams Sr., was arrested at the scene and later charged with first-degree premeditated murder. Nearly two years later, a Flagler County jury convicted him after about 20 minutes of deliberation. The same panel then voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence. Williams, now 54, appeared Wednesday for a Spencer hearing before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols, the final stage for presenting additional mitigation before the judge decides between death and life imprisonment without parole.
The involvement of the couple’s son and Williams’ father gave investigators eyewitnesses from inside the family at the same time neighborhood surveillance cameras supplied an independent record of the events. Prosecutors said the teenage son saw the attack and tried to intervene. Williams’ father, David Williams, testified that he came upon the violence while driving to work and saw his son attacking Yolonda Williams. Authorities said he produced a firearm and warned Jermaine Williams to stop or he would shoot him. The defendant eventually stepped away before officers took him into custody.
Other witnesses encountered the scene from the surrounding neighborhood. One person walking nearby heard screaming. Another said Yolonda Williams was calling for help while the attack continued. Neighbors began moving toward the street and telling Williams to stop, according to police accounts. What began as a conflict between spouses inside and outside a private residence had become a public emergency in a residential block, drawing in a child, a parent, neighbors, deputies, police officers and emergency medical personnel within minutes.
Investigators later pieced together what had led to that point. Williams told detectives he and his wife had been arguing for several weeks and that he had been sleeping in his truck in the driveway. He said that on the morning of Aug. 2 he wanted to repair their relationship and went into the house to tell Yolonda Williams that he did not want to continue living that way. She was preparing to leave for work and did not accept the reconciliation he sought, according to Williams’ account.
When Yolonda Williams’ vehicle would not start, Williams offered to drive her, police said. She instead planned to have someone else pick her up. Their argument continued, and Williams later told investigators that she made a sarcastic remark asking, in substance, whether he wanted her to “play you a violin.” Williams said the remark “pushed him over the edge.” Police recorded that as his account of what he claimed triggered his actions, not as a justification for the killing or as an independently established explanation of Yolonda Williams’ intentions.
Surveillance footage became crucial because it showed what Williams did after the exchange. Authorities said he went into the residence, retrieved an approximately 8-inch chef’s knife from the kitchen and returned outside. Prosecutors argued that the intervening steps demonstrated deliberation and supported the first-degree murder charge. Williams acknowledged retrieving the knife but told investigators that he then “blacked out.” He admitted stabbing his wife more than once and said he could not remember the number of wounds.
The physical and medical evidence supplied that detail later. Prosecutors said Yolonda Williams suffered about 19 or 20 stab wounds. First responders found her critically injured and took her to a hospital, where she died. The State Attorney’s Office said the couple’s son had attempted to help her during the assault. Williams’ father’s intervention stopped his son from continuing before responding officers arrived. Williams remained at the location and was arrested without a reported flight from the scene.
The family members who witnessed the killing were also part of a household with an earlier documented history of domestic violence. At the time Yolonda Williams died, Jermaine Williams was on probation for a 2022 case involving her. Police said that case included aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and witness tampering allegations. His probation conditions permitted contact with Yolonda only in writing. Authorities also said an injunction for protection had been entered following the earlier incident but was dismissed later in 2022.
Those earlier events provided context, but the murder trial still turned on the evidence from Aug. 2, 2024. Prosecutors had to establish premeditation beyond a reasonable doubt. They pointed to the surveillance video, Williams’ trip inside for the knife, the witness accounts and his own statements. Defense counsel challenged whether the state had proved that the killing was premeditated rather than the result of an argument that escalated. On July 17, the jury of 10 women and two men returned a first-degree murder verdict after a short deliberation.
For Yolonda Williams’ relatives, the verdict did not end the court proceedings. The case moved directly into a penalty phase in which the jury heard evidence about whether Williams should receive the harshest punishment available under Florida law. After two days, 11 of the 12 jurors recommended death. Prosecutors said the panel unanimously found each aggravating factor presented to it. State Attorney R.J. Larizza said after the recommendation that his office would continue seeking the death penalty while supporting Williams’ family.
The final decision belongs to Nichols. Before she sentences Williams, Florida’s capital procedure allows additional mitigation through a Spencer hearing. Williams used Wednesday’s proceeding to submit a handwritten letter rather than testify. No witnesses were called. The letter, titled “My Superwoman,” addressed Yolonda Williams and the children. In portions reported after the hearing, Williams wrote that he missed his wife and children and urged the children not to let hatred toward him dominate their lives.
The submission placed Williams’ words about his family before a judge who already has a trial record showing that members of the same family were forced into active roles during the killing. One child tried to intervene while his mother was being attacked. A grandfather confronted his own son with a firearm to make the attack stop. Those events were not merely later descriptions from Williams; they were supported through eyewitness testimony, investigative findings and prosecutors’ presentation of the surveillance evidence.
The distinction matters as the case reaches sentencing. Williams’ handwritten statement is mitigation offered after conviction. It can be considered alongside other defense evidence, but it does not undo the jury’s determination that he acted with the premeditation required for first-degree murder. Nor does the jury’s 11-1 death recommendation automatically decide the punishment. Nichols must review the full record and enter her own sentencing order under Florida law.
The court has not yet imposed that sentence. Reporting following the Aug. 26 hearing indicated the decision is expected later this fall, likely around the middle of October, subject to the judge’s schedule. Until then, the case remains at the narrowest possible point: Jermaine Williams’ criminal responsibility for Yolonda Williams’ murder has been resolved by the jury, while the question of whether he will spend the rest of his life in prison or be sentenced to death remains with Nichols.
Author note: Last updated August 27, 2026.