Oakland Man Gets 3 Years Probation For Robbery of Emeryville Cyclist, Not Guilty of Felony AWDW Charge

March 15, 2019
3
2 mins read

The man convicted last month of robbing an Emeryville cyclist was sentenced in an Alameda County courtroom recently. Jurors found Jesse Williams guilty of second-degree robbery in their verdict on January 31. They however found him not guilty of a felony assault with a deadly weapon charge. The case was prosecuted by DDA Will Layne.

54-year-old Williams was given three years felony probation for stealing an iPhone from a woman while she was riding her bike from her job in Emeryville to her home in West Oakland two years ago.

Alameda County prosecutors said Williams was in his car and then pursued the woman while she was crossing through the intersection of Mandela Parkway and Horton Street near the East Bay Bridge shopping center in Emeryville on January 27, 2017.

Williams then hit the victim with his car, a 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis, flinging her off her bike and onto her back, prosecutors said.

Williams confronted the woman while she was on the ground, hit her on her head and snatched the iPhone from her hand. During her interaction with Williams, the victim noticed what she believed to be a pistol grip protruding from his pants, prosecutors said.

When Williams drove away from the scene, he pointed what turned out to be a pellet gun at the woman and threatened her life. He was later arrested in the 950 block of 12th Street in West Oakland and the woman’s iPhone was recovered by law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

The victim was not injured and Williams wasn’t armed with an actual firearm, according to the defense attorney.


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Williams’ attorney Brie Jefferson told Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay in a sentencing memo that Williams has already spent 524 days in custody, which she said is almost three times as much time as prosecutors offered him in a plea deal that he rejected because he wanted to stand trial.

Jefferson said she raised doubts about Williams’ mental capacity shortly after she began representing him, and prosecutors and judges who handled his case went to trial “very quickly understood that this was not the typical case and Mr. Williams was not a typical defendant.”

Jefferson said, “For these reasons they worked diligently to help Mr. Williams have the chance for a brighter future and essentially get out of
his own way.”

The defense attorney wrote that Williams “was essentially keeping himself in jail unless we intervened.” Jefferson said, “It is unclear if he failed to take advantage of (plea) offers because he just could not admit to himself what he had done or if he had a desire to stay incarcerated longer or what exactly his end game was.”

Jefferson wrote, “I truly believe Mr. Williams will not be a threat to society just as he abstained from being a threat to society for 54 years.” Most of Williams’s prior convictions were for misdemeanor conduct, such as trespassing, she said.

Williams has lived in Houston for most of his life and moved to the Bay Area to visit and stay with family members shortly before the crime.

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3 Comments

    • The judge and possibly even the defense attorney deserve 3 years felony probation for there ignorance and Mr.williams needs a sentence of 10+years and a thorough effing beatdown.Karma and Darwinism will catch up with this mofo. If the victims family doesn’t get him sooner

  1. Absolutely Outrageous. Judge should be given 3 years felony probation and this guy needs to do a dime at the Quinn

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