Williams found guilty of second-degree murder

In her closing statement, Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Pettersen reminded the court that Townsend was just 18 when he was shot and killed. She walked the jury through all of the evidence presented over the course of the week, reminding them how “complete strangers” came to his aid after he was shot seven times and dragged out of the car before first responders ultimately declared him dead at 8:37 p.m. Although a motive for Townsend’s death was never confirmed, Pettersen posited the two men may have been arguing, perhaps over money Townsend had made from drug deals he allegedly made that day.

In deciding their verdict, Pettersen asked the jury to “look closely” at the elements of first-degree murder when considering how to find him: Williams’ actions that night, Pettersen said, meet the standard of “willful, deliberate and premeditated.”

“When you shoot someone that many times, you intend to kill,” Pettersen said. “With each pull of the trigger,” she said, Williams “could have walked away, but he didn’t. Hold him accountable by finding him guilty.”

Straight away, public defender Michael Beach said “Nick didn’t do it. That makes no sense.” There was “zero evidence” that Townsend’s body was dragged from the car, Beach said, saying that was something the state “made up, whole cloth.” Townsend was “shot outside the car, and not by Nicholas Williams.” The state presented new and untested theories out of nowhere, he told the court.

Murder is a “senseless” crime every time, Beach said, “but the investigations are supposed to make sense.” By now, Beach told the jury, they probably have several unanswered questions, “each one a reasonable doubt,” adding that “maybe, probably, almost certainly … all of those mean acquit.”

Williams is not responsible for Townsend’s death, Beach said: Rather, his real killer remains unidentified and on the loose. When Williams fled the scene that night, Beach said, he had “acted out of fear of being the next victim.” His client also had “the fear of being falsely accused” of his friend’s death, Beach said, and in this instance that particular fear has come true.

“In their world, do you think he could just go back and say ‘I was there, but I didn’t help’? That’s not how their world works,” Beach said. It was fear of the consequences of even being there that left Williams “stressed out, anxious, hunkered down at home and scared to death” before his arrest. A witness in the case, Beach reminded the jury, initially told police he thought “maybe Nick saw something he didn’t want to see.”

The state’s case, Beach said, asks the jury to assume a lot and is built on “hare-brained theories” developed by the Charles County Sheriff’s Office detectives who investigated the case. Physical evidence went unchecked and leads were not pursued, Beach said, and the jury should not ignore holes in their argument.

“Do not give your blessing to this inadequate investigation,” Beach concluded.

Assistant State’s Attorney John Stackhouse rebutted Beach’s arguments emphatically. The state does not deal in theories but in facts and evidence, he told the jury, and the evidence in this case has been consistent with Williams being Townsend’s murderer all along. What the state says, Stackhouse told the court at several junctures throughout his rebuttal, isn’t what matters: What is important, and what they need to focus on, is the evidence.

Stackhouse urged the jury members to employ their common sense in deciding a verdict. Williams had lied about dropping Townsend off at a liquor store that night, Stackhouse said, both to mutual friends of theirs and Townsend’s family. His conversations that day were odd, to say the least, Stackhouse said.