The punishment followed brief jury deliberations and a sentencing hearing in which relatives and a foster mother described years of abuse, isolation and fear.
CANTON, Ga. — A Cherokee County judge sentenced Kelvin Demond Williams to life in prison without parole plus 100 years and 12 months after jurors convicted him of murdering his wife and attempting to kill her teenage son in a 2025 shooting inside their home.
The sentence marked the most public moment in a case that prosecutors framed not only as a homicide, but as the end point of long-running coercion inside a family. By the time Superior Court Judge Shannon Wallace imposed the maximum punishment on March 26, 2026, jurors had already heard evidence that two children were in the home, that one boy called 911 while hiding in a bedroom, and that Tenisha Williams had spent years under close control before she was killed.
The sentencing hearing turned from the immediate crime to the damage left behind. Prosecutors said four people gave victim impact statements. Family members described a pattern of abuse, intimidation and control that reached far beyond the final night, saying Tenisha Williams had been cut off from adult children and was not even allowed to attend her mother’s funeral. A close friend from church, now serving as the children’s foster mother, spoke about her love for them and her commitment to remain in their lives. Wallace said the harm caused by the defendant was “unfathomable,” language that reflected both the killing itself and the years relatives said came before it. She also ordered Williams to have no contact with all of Tenisha Williams’ children, the foster mother and their families.
The courtroom outcome came quickly once jurors got the case. The trial started March 23 and lasted about three and a half days, according to the district attorney’s office. Prosecutors called 13 witnesses, including law enforcement officers, medical experts and lay witnesses, and introduced about 150 exhibits. Those materials included the 911 call, body camera video, security footage from inside the home, medical records, crime scene photographs and recorded jail phone calls. On March 26, jurors deliberated for less than an hour before finding Williams guilty on every count in the indictment. The list included malice murder, two felony murder counts, two family violence aggravated assault counts, criminal attempt to commit murder, first-degree cruelty to children and several firearm charges.
Only after that legal sweep did prosecutors publicly revisit the details of the shooting. They said the attack happened at about 10:40 p.m. on July 13, 2025, in a home on Daventry Crossing in the Woodstock area of Cherokee County. A 16-year-old boy called 911 from his bedroom after telling dispatchers his stepfather had fired at him, then shot his mother, and might be reloading a revolver. Deputies arrived to find Kelvin Williams standing near the entrance to an open garage, smoking a cigarette. He came outside after repeated commands and was detained. Officers found Tenisha Williams dead on the kitchen floor. The revolver, prosecutors said, was on the kitchen island.
The state used home security footage to build the sequence that supported the attempted murder charge involving the teen and the murder charge involving Tenisha Williams. Prosecutors said the video showed five shots. The first was fired at the boy’s head and missed. Two more were aimed at Tenisha Williams and missed. A fourth missed the teen as he ran for cover. The final shot killed Tenisha Williams after the defendant walked toward her in the kitchen. She was out of view of the camera, prosecutors said, but the audio captured her begging him not to shoot. After the gunfire, investigators said, the recording picked up Williams asking, “You dead, [expletive]?” No injury to the 4-year-old child asleep in another bedroom was reported.
Prosecutors argued the evidence showed planning and domination, not a sudden burst of chaos without context. Rachel Ashe, who prosecuted the case for the district attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit, said Kelvin Williams had systematically isolated his wife and monitored her movements by requiring her to wear a Bluetooth device when she left the home. Ashe also said evidence showed that on the day of the shooting he had Tenisha Williams buy and load the firearm later used in the killing. District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway said after sentencing that the punishment sent a message that Tenisha Williams’ life mattered and that the violence inflicted on her was “evil and inexcusable.”
With sentencing complete, the case has moved from trial to the appeal window. The next step would be a notice of appeal or other post-conviction filing following the March 26 judgment.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.