A jury recommended death for Jermaine Williams after convicting him of killing Yolonda Williams as their teenage son tried to intervene.

BUNNELL, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of murdering his wife outside their Bunnell home is awaiting a judge’s decision on whether he will be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole after a final mitigation hearing this week added another chapter to a case that began with a fatal domestic attack in 2024.

Jermaine Mandell Williams Sr., 54, appeared Wednesday before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols for a Spencer hearing, a proceeding that allows a defendant facing a possible death sentence to present additional information before the judge imposes punishment. No witnesses testified during the brief hearing. Williams instead submitted a handwritten statement titled “My Superwoman,” referring to his wife, Yolonda Williams. The hearing followed his July 17 conviction for first-degree murder and an 11-1 jury recommendation on July 22 that he be put to death. Nichols has not yet imposed the final sentence, and current reporting indicates sentencing is expected later this fall.

The sentencing decision will conclude the trial-court phase of a case built around surveillance video, witness testimony and Williams’ own statements to detectives about the morning of Aug. 2, 2024. Prosecutors said the evidence showed Williams left an argument outside the couple’s South Pine Street home, went inside, retrieved a large kitchen knife and returned before attacking his 50-year-old wife. Their 14-year-old son witnessed the assault and tried to intervene, according to the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s Seventh Judicial Circuit. Williams’ father, who lived nearby, also came upon the scene and ultimately held his son at gunpoint until the attack stopped.

The confrontation had begun after weeks of conflict between the couple, according to statements Williams gave investigators after his arrest. He said he had been sleeping in his truck in the driveway and went inside that morning because he wanted to repair the relationship. Yolonda Williams was preparing to leave for work when her vehicle would not start. Williams offered to drive her, but she declined and planned to arrange another ride. During the argument that followed, Williams told detectives, his wife made a remark to the effect of, “Poor Jermaine. Do you want me to play you a violin?” Williams said the comment “pushed him over the edge.”

That explanation became part of the evidence surrounding the question of premeditation. Williams acknowledged going back into the house and retrieving a knife from a kitchen drawer before returning outside. Investigators said nearby surveillance footage showed that movement and the attack that followed. Williams initially told detectives that he had “blacked out,” but he also acknowledged stabbing his wife multiple times. Prosecutors later told jurors that Yolonda Williams suffered about 19 or 20 stab wounds. She was taken to a hospital after deputies and emergency personnel arrived and died from her injuries.

Several people encountered the violence as it unfolded on the residential street. Police said one witness heard Yolonda Williams screaming for help and another saw Williams attacking her as neighbors approached and demanded that he stop. His father testified at trial that he was driving to work when he saw his son attacking his daughter-in-law. According to investigators and later court testimony, the elder Williams threatened to shoot his son if he did not stop. The teenage son also tried to reach his mother during the assault, prosecutors said. Officers arriving at the scene took Williams into custody.

The homicide did not occur against a backdrop of an otherwise unknown relationship between the couple and law enforcement. At the time of the killing, Williams was on probation for a 2022 domestic-violence case involving Yolonda Williams. Police records said that earlier case included allegations of aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and witness tampering. Court conditions limited his contact with his wife to written communication, according to authorities. An injunction for protection had also been entered after the earlier incident, though police said it was dismissed later in 2022. Those facts became significant in both the murder prosecution and the penalty proceedings.

Nearly two years after Yolonda Williams was killed, prosecutors presented the murder case to a Flagler County jury. The panel of 10 women and two men returned a guilty verdict July 17 after about 20 minutes of deliberation, according to the State Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors argued that the sequence recorded on video — leaving the confrontation, entering the residence, obtaining the knife and returning to attack — demonstrated a deliberate killing. The defense disputed that the state had proved premeditation and argued that the death occurred during an argument rather than as the result of a formed plan. The jury found Williams guilty of first-degree murder.

The case then moved quickly into a separate penalty phase because prosecutors were seeking capital punishment. After two days of testimony and argument, jurors voted 11-1 to recommend death. Prosecutors said the jury unanimously found the aggravating circumstances submitted for its consideration. State Attorney R.J. Larizza said after the vote that his office would continue pursuing a death sentence while supporting Yolonda Williams’ family. The recommendation is highly consequential, but it does not itself constitute the sentence. Under Florida’s capital sentencing process, Nichols must independently decide the punishment after considering the jury’s recommendation, aggravating circumstances and mitigation presented by the defense.

Wednesday’s Spencer hearing gave Williams another opportunity to place mitigating information before the judge. Rather than testify, he submitted a three-page handwritten statement. In portions reported by the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Williams wrote about missing his wife and children and addressed his children about their feelings toward him. The letter also described aspects of his relationship with Yolonda Williams. No witness took the stand at the hearing, which lasted about 10 minutes. The filing did not alter the jury’s verdict or its sentencing recommendation; it became additional material for Nichols to consider before issuing the court’s final judgment on punishment.

The letter arrived after trial testimony had already provided jurors with a substantially different kind of record: testimony about the couple’s history, the earlier domestic-violence prosecution, the attack itself and the efforts of relatives and first responders to help Yolonda Williams. The evidence also documented Williams’ actions immediately before the killing. That chronology mattered because the central trial question was not whether Williams inflicted the fatal wounds — his own statements and the video were among the evidence on that point — but whether the state had established the premeditation required for first-degree murder. The jury’s rapid verdict resolved that question against him.

The case also changed significantly between Williams’ arrest in August 2024 and the proceedings taking place now. At the time of his arrest, he was an accused defendant facing a first-degree murder charge and a probation violation. He has since been tried and convicted, and the presumption of innocence that applied before the verdict no longer governs the murder count. What remains undecided is the punishment. Florida law permits either a death sentence or life imprisonment without parole for the first-degree murder conviction under the circumstances presented in the capital proceeding.

Nichols will make that decision after reviewing the record from the guilt and penalty phases, the jury’s 11-1 recommendation and the additional mitigation submitted at the Spencer hearing. Reporting after Wednesday’s proceeding indicated that sentencing is likely in the middle of October, though the court will control the final schedule. Until Nichols enters the sentence, Williams remains convicted of first-degree murder with the jury’s death recommendation pending before the court.

Author note: Last updated August 27, 2026.