A Lithonia man was convicted Monday of stabbing his mother to death at a DeKalb County home four years ago, prosecutors said.
Antonio Williams, 28, was found guilty of murder and assault in the killing of 49-year-old Terri Alexander, who was found lying on the garage floor at the home on White Oak Loop near Stonecrest on March 5, 2020, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
A sheet was covering her body and she “had numerous stab wounds and was cold to the touch,” prosecutors said.
DeKalb police responded to the residential neighborhood just south of I-20 and found Williams sitting in the front of the garage. He told them he had been released from Grady Memorial Hospital and came home to find his mother unresponsive. Prosecutors said he went to a neighbor’s house to call 911 and said his mother had fainted.
But soon after, officers entered the garage and found firewood, lighter fluid and charcoal next to Alexander’s body and in a car parked inside, the DA’s office said. A burn hole had been made in the sheet that covered her, according to prosecutors.
Dried blood was also visible throughout the house, including the victim’s bedroom, where officers located a bloody chef’s knife, bloody towels, black trash bags and empty bleach bottles, the DA’s office said. Bloody shoes were also found in Williams’ bathroom, and the tub had been filled with water.
Police had responded to the home nine days earlier after Williams and his mother got into an argument about not cleaning the bathroom. Prosecutors said Williams was taken to a Grady mental health unit after it was determined “he wasn’t taking his medications as prescribed.”
According to the DA’s office, Williams had been released from the hospital the day before the killing. The victim’s phone showed she went to Grady that day after getting several calls from the hospital. The phone was then tracked to a store and eventually back home. After 2:07 p.m., it was never unlocked again, prosecutors said.
Williams was convicted on two counts of felony murder and a count each of malice murder, aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony.
His sentencing hearing will be scheduled “in the coming weeks,” the DA’s office said.
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