Homeless man with violent history arrested in ‘completely random’ slaying of Florida teen
A homeless man in southern Florida was arrested this week for fatally stabbing a teen that was found in Palm Beach Gardens last month.
Palm Beach Gardens Chief Clinton Shannon said that Semmie Lee Williams, 39, who has a history of random violence, was arrested in Miami Wednesday on first-degree murder charges in the death of 14-year-old Ryan Rogers.
Rogers, a high school freshman, went to ride his bike early in the evening of Nov. 15 and never came home. The body of the teen, who court records say was stabbed in the head multiple times, was found the following day beside an overpass on Interstate 95.
“This appears to be a completely random act. We do not have a motive,” said Shannon.
Authorities do not know why Williams, who has no known ties to Palm Beach County, about 80 miles north of Miami, would have been in the area.
Williams, according to court records, denied ever crossing paths with the boy, but his DNA was found on headphones discovered at the scene and Rogers’ blood was found on a bandana in the man’s backpack. Williams also matches the description of a man caught on surveillance footage heading in the direction of the body’s dump site in the minutes after Rogers’ cell phone stopped moving.
“I would best describe it as an innocent child victim having a chance encounter with a very violent criminal,” said Shannon.
Williams pleaded guilty in 2018 to aggravated assault-strangulation and battery on a person 65 years or older in relation to a random attack four years prior in Atlanta, in which Williams jumped out from behind a wall to put a passerby in a chokehold and beat him on the head, according to court records. The attack left the victim with a permanent arm injury. After the crime occurred in 2014, Williams had been found mentally incompetent to assist in his own defense.
Williams served four years behind bars and in a mental hospital and though prosecutors tried for an additional year, the judge wouldn’t go for it, reasoning that Williams had no prior felony convictions. He was sentenced to time served and ordered to leave Georgia immediately upon his release that day.
Williams was ordered to take a bus to central Florida where he would serve five years probation and be cared for by his mother — who had taken a restraining order against him in the mid-2000s.
During that time period, Williams was arrested for multiple misdemeanors in the region, including domestic violence, resisting arrest without violence, petty theft and carrying a concealed electronic weapon.
With News Wire Services
