{"id":21011,"date":"2022-03-17T14:37:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T18:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=21011"},"modified":"2022-03-17T14:37:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T18:37:39","slug":"auburndale-man-charged-with-first-degree-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/03\/17\/auburndale-man-charged-with-first-degree-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburndale man charged with first-degree murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 11, 2022, PCSO Homicide detectives charged\u00a030-year-old David Jesse<\/a>\u00a0Williams of Auburndale<\/strong>\u00a0via warrant with first-degree murder and other charges for murdering an 81-year-old Auburndale man who had been reported missing to the Auburndale Police Department. Williams was taken into custody in Georgia, where he fled after committing the crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The investigation began on Wednesday, March 9th, when an 81-year-old Auburndale man (the victim) was reported missing to the Auburndale Police Department. The witness told APD officers that she had not heard from the victim since March 3, 2022. She also stated that Williams had been violent in the past and she was concerned for the victim\u2019s safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the investigation, APD detectives learned that Williams might be at a residence in Hinesville, Georgia, and traveled to Georgia to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APD detectives contacted Georgia law enforcement officers who assisted with locating Williams at the suspected residence. When located by Georgia law enforcement, Williams was wearing gloves and was cleaning the inside of the victim\u2019s truck. Detectives observed blood inside the cab of the truck and a shovel in the bed of the truck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams told detectives that he used a black rope to choke the victim to death in rural Polk County in the Polk City area, and that he moved the victim\u2019s body to the rear floor of the truck and then drove to Georgia where he buried him. The victim\u2019s body was located in a shallow grave exactly where Williams told detectives it would be. A black rope was around the victim\u2019s neck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the murder occurring in the Polk City area, PCSO Homicide detectives traveled to Georgia and assumed the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPartnerships with our fellow law enforcement agencies are vital to the safety of our communities. Auburndale police department officers did an outstanding job investigating the missing person case\u2014their work led directly to the discovery of Williams as the man who killed our victim. Georgia law enforcement did an outstanding job monitoring the suspect\u2019s movements and finding key evidence in the case, including the location of our victim\u2019s body. By combining our resources, we were able to take a violent criminal off the streets.\u201d<\/em>\u2013 Grady Judd, Sheriff<\/strong>

\u201cOur members responded initially to a missing and endangered 81-year-old resident of Auburndale. They worked tirelessly over the next three days, during which they found out the victim had been killed in an area north of Polk City, taken to a wooded area in Long County, Georgia, and buried. We worked with the Liberty County (GA) Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Worthville Police Department to locate and interview the suspect. They obtained a confession and were led to the buried body of the victim by the suspect. We also coordinated our investigation with Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office detectives, who are among the best in the business, demonstrating again the value of teamwork and cooperation.\u201d <\/em>– Andy Ray, Police Chief, Auburndale<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams was charged with:
\u00b7        First Degree Murder (FC)
\u00b7        Tampering with Evidence (F3)
\u00b7        Grand Theft Auto (F3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Auburndale Police Department also charged Williams with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon (F2). Williams is currently in the Liberty County Jail in Georgia and will be transferred to Polk County at a later date. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 11, 2022, PCSO Homicide detectives charged\u00a030-year-old David Jesse\u00a0Williams of Auburndale\u00a0via warrant with first-degree murder and other charges for murdering an 81-year-old Auburndale man who had been reported missing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[2565],"class_list":["post-21011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-auburndale-man-charged-with-first-degree-murder"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}