Maine man pleads not guilty to killing cellmate in 2022

Carl Williams, accused of killing his cellmate at Windham Correctional Facility in 2022, appeared in Cumberland County Superior Court on Thursday to plead not guilty. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

A man accused of killing his cellmate in prison was cleared of responsibility after two years in limbo and pleaded not guilty to the murder charge Thursday morning.

Carl Williams, 40, pleaded not guilty during a brief appearance before Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy. He also waived his right to a competency hearing.

Renaldo Jones Photo courtesy of Franklin Jones

Defense attorney Henry Griffin told the judge that Williams “has no doubt about his sanity and does not wish to pursue this point any further.”

Williams is accused of killing Renaldo Jones, who was Williams' cellmate at Windham Correctional Facility. Jones was 30 when he died on May 10, 2022, at Maine Medical Center, where he was unresponsive for four months after Williams allegedly attacked him.

According to the Penobscot County District Attorney's Office, Williams was serving several prison sentences at the time, including a four-year sentence for intentionally crashing a pickup truck into another vehicle.

After being charged with murder in June 2022, Williams failed to appear in court. A Maine State Prison employee told Murphy at the time that Williams had not had contact with anyone since being transferred to the facility following the attack. The judge said during the hearing that she was concerned about his mental state and asked for him to be checked in regularly.

Murphy ruled Thursday, after reviewing a doctor's report, that Williams was mentally competent and could appear in court. If convicted, Williams faces a minimum of 25 years in prison. Williams' file was still with the judge, but a copy of the report was not available.

Williams remains held without bail in a special housing unit at the Maine State Prison in Warren.

Jones had a year left on his sentence at Windham Prison for theft when he was attacked. After learning he had been hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury, his family came to Maine from Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Massachusetts to stay as long as they could. After they were forced to return home, they monitored his health via Zoom call, watching for signs of recovery.

Relatives told the Press Herald that Jones was a person who cared for others and that his time behind bars was due to his long-standing struggle with substance abuse. His family said he had hoped to make a fresh start after prison and move to Massachusetts to become a licensed septic system contractor like his brother.

“He just hoped to serve his sentence and then come home and try to do better,” his sister Julia Moreno said in 2022. “He just didn't deserve this. Nobody deserves this.”

Copy the story link