Suspect in May 25 slaying is charged in 1994 fatal shooting
8/3/2002The past has come back to haunt Prentiss Williams.
The 23-year-old man accused of killing a woman and shooting a man as they sat in a car at Torrey Hill Drive and Macomber Street near Ottawa Park on May 25 has been charged in another fatal shooting - one he was accused of committing eight years ago.
Authorities have charged Williams with delinquency in connection with aggravated murder in the shooting death May, 27, 1994, of city employee Richard Hendricks, 37, of Toledo.
The same charge was filed against him after the 1994 shooting, which occurred during a robbery at a suspected crack house at 909 Nesslewood Ave. Williams was 15 at the time. Mr. Hendricks was found in a back bedroom of the apartment with a gunshot wound in the chest.
Tom Ross, an investigator for the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office, said yesterday that the case was dismissed after key witnesses didn't show up for Williams' hearing in Lucas County Juvenile Court in 1994.
Authorities have since located the witnesses and interviewed them again, Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester said.
“We were able to relocate the witnesses. They are cooperative,” Mr. Ross said.
Authorities will ask that Williams be certified to stand trial as an adult on the delinquency charge, which was filed in Juvenile Court because he was a juvenile when the shooting occurred.
Williams of 2835 Albion St. pleaded not guilty July 8 to charges that he killed Carmita Dickey, 30, of Goodale Avenue and shot Damion Davis, 28, as they sat in a car near Ottawa Park.
After the shootings, police issued arrest warrants for Williams and Jonathon Booker, 24, of Birckhead Place in connection with the incident. However, Mr. Booker was found shot to death the next morning in the 1300 block of Thatcher Drive.
The shootings occurred a month after Williams was released from prison on convictions for felonious assault and receiving stolen property.
Williams was arrested June 21 in Columbus. No arrests have been made in Mr. Booker's death. Williams is scheduled for trial Aug. 26 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in the death of Ms. Dickey and the shooting of Mr. Davis.
The cold case unit - which includes members from Toledo police, the county prosecutor's office, the FBI, the Lucas County Coroner's Office, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation - reopened the 1994 case prior to Ms. Dickey's death.
Mr. Hendricks was a mechanic for the city of Toledo's facilities and fleet operations division. After he was killed, family members and co-workers said he had a past drug problem.
Blade staff writer Mark Reiter contributed to this report.