Man receives 4 death sentences for kidnapping, rape and murder of 5-year-old Georgia girl

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (AP) — A man who kidnapped, raped and killed a 5-year-old Georgia girl has been sentenced to four death sentences for the crime.

Russell County Circuit Court Judge David Johnson on Monday handed down the sentence to Jeremy Williams who murdered, raped and brutalized Kamarie Holland in 2021, news outlets reported.

Holland’s mother told police that when she woke up at 5:50 a.m. on December 13, 2021, her daughter was gone and the front door of their Columbus, Georgia home was open, a Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told reporters. The girl’s body was found late at night in an abandoned house near Phenix City, Alabama, where Williams once lived.

A jury convicted him Friday of four counts of capital murder, among other charges.

Living in Columbus at the time of the murder, Williams raped and strangled Holland after offering her mother $2,500 to have Holland perform oral sex on her, according to testimony given at his trial. Video evidence shown to jurors showed officers finding Holland’s body and sexually assaulting the girl. Some jurors began crying when videos of the assault were shown, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported.

After his sentencing, Holland’s father, Corey Holland Sr., urged the judge to impose the death sentence on his daughter’s killer.

“Her life is nothing compared to Kamarie’s,” he told the newspaper.

Several other witnesses spoke about the impact the case had on them and gave their opinions about Williams, WRBL-TV reported.

Williams’ ex-wife called him “soulless” and a 23-year-old woman, who was four years old when Williams allegedly attacked her, described him as a “monster”.

Taylor told the Ledger-Enquirer it was one of the most difficult cases the sheriff’s office has ever had to investigate.

“If there was ever anyone who deserved the death penalty, it was Jeremy Williams,” Taylor said after the sentencing. “It’s a different kind of evil that we in society just don’t need.”

In addition to the four death sentences, Johnson sentenced Williams to life in prison for producing obscene material on a child and human trafficking; 20 years for human trafficking conspiracy; and 10 years for abuse of a corpse.

Although he now sits on death row at Holman State Prison in Atmore, authorities have said his execution could be decades away. Russell County Prosecutor Rick Chancey speculated that it would be some time before the sentence was carried out.

“At the current rate, I will die before him,” Chancey, 55, told the TV station. “My current life expectancy is probably shorter than his. »

Chancey said he recently visited the little girl’s grave and said, “There’s no reason for the baby to be in the ground.”

“I want to remember her, not this prankster,” Chancey said. “Jeremy is not someone I want to remember in life.”