Quentin Williams, the inmate who Tree allegedly confessed to about shooting Rhett August and Christina Schwarz and Alan Marcet gave details of how the conversation occurred and said that after this conversation, he looked at his cell mate Losey and they just shook their heads.
Williams testified that he changed his views about Tree after this conversation and remembers thinking, "He (Tree) is crazy. There is something wrong with him."
Williams testified that there were three conversations that occurred between him and Tree and two involved information about the case. That although Tree may have stopped by to say hi to him, sometimes he pretended to be asleep because he did not want to be bothered by Tree.
He told Ms. Firpo that if he said the exact words, there would be a lot of cursing. She told him they needed to hear the exact words in court, so "let it rip."
Williams said there were two conversations that occured. In the first conversation, Tree was outside his cell, and he said he was "going to beat the case against him" and that they had "nothing against him; only hearsay evidence." Williams could not remember for sure if Losey was his cellmate at that time. For the second conversation he remembers Losey being there.
Williams testified that Tree said he would not stay "locally" and go to SoHum to stay with family. Williams said that Tree was drifting back and forth between arguing with Panther (Tyrel Brannon) and talking to him.
He claims Tree said, "I might be getting out of this motherfucking" place and "I am going to beat this shit and get the fuck out of here. I am tired of these faggot woods."
In the second conversation, Williams said he specifically recalls Tree saying, "They don't have nothin on me. I am going to beat this." Then he says Panther yelled something to Tree and Tree told Williams that Panther and his friends jumped him when "I was trying to flirt with this punk ass white bitch. These white boys got jealous. The bitch started talkin shit" and then they jumped him.
Williams said that he heard Tree yell to Panther, "I'm going to shoot you in the motherfuckin head. I am going to get you when I get out."
This is the first time Rhett August's mother has been able to attend the trial. She was sitting in the audience as she heard Williams repeat the threat which has been previously testified to by Brannon and Losey.
Williams said Tree yelled to Panther, "I should have shot him (Rhett) in the head or I wouldn't have been here right now."
Then Mrs. Schwarz, Christina's mother had to hear Williams testify that Tree spoke about the Arcata shooting. According to Williams, Tree said, "Mother fucker white boy tried to be a hero because I was trying to...the fucking white bitch."
Losey had testified yesterday that Tree said some "dude in Arcata with a girl got up in his face."
Williams who is African-American said of Losey that he considers him a leader for dropping out of the white pride gang and that Losey is not a racist. "He just made some bad decisions in his youth just like we all did."
Thank you for writing these statements. Being in the courtroom those few days ended up being perfect timing for me. but it was unbelievably hard to hear Williams say how the white dude tried to be a hero... My son was there for Christina and "have her back," he was never a fighter.
ReplyDelete