BUNNELL, Fla. – A Flagler County jury on Friday convicted Jermaine Mandell Williams Sr. of first-degree murder for the Aug. 2, 2024, stabbing death of his wife, the State Attorney’s Office said.
RELATED: Bunnell man accused of stabbing wife to death said one comment pushed him over the edge: police
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After a two-day trial, the 12-member jury — 10 women and two men — deliberated about 20 minutes before finding Williams guilty, according to a July 17 press release from the Office of the State Attorney for the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
Surveillance video and testimony showed Williams went into his home, returned with an approximately eight-inch chef’s knife and attacked the victim in the street outside the couple’s Bunnell home, the office said. The victim, identified in earlier reporting as Yolonda Charmaine Williams, 50, was stabbed about 19–20 times, taken to a hospital and later died from her injuries. A 14-year-old son witnessed the attack and tried to intervene, and the defendant’s father — who lives nearby — held Williams at gunpoint until he stepped away from the victim, officials said.
Williams told detectives he retrieved the knife from the kitchen and stabbed his wife multiple times, and that a comment she made “pushed him over the edge,” the prosecutor’s office said. Records show Williams was on probation for charges stemming from a 2022 domestic violence incident involving his wife.
“This was a brutal and vicious murder,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in the release.
The office said it will seek the death penalty; the penalty phase is scheduled to begin July 21, when the Honorable Dawn Nichols will hear the case and later impose sentence.