Jurors convicted Kelvin Demond Williams on 13 counts after prosecutors laid out a minute-by-minute account of the July 13, 2025 attack inside the family’s Woodstock-area home.

CANTON, Ga. — A Georgia man was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 100 years and 12 months after a jury found he fatally shot his wife and tried to kill her 16-year-old son during a late-night attack at their home in the Woodstock area, prosecutors said.

The verdict and sentence brought a fast legal end to a case that centered on a terrified teenager’s 911 call, in-home security video and testimony about years of control inside the household. Prosecutors said Kelvin Demond Williams, 48, killed Tenisha Williams, also 48, on July 13, 2025, after first firing at her son. The case carried immediate weight because two children were inside the home, one awake and hiding, the other 4 years old and asleep in another bedroom as deputies arrived.

According to prosecutors, the violence unfolded at about 10:40 p.m. at a home on Daventry Crossing. The 16-year-old called 911 from his bedroom, where he had taken cover after telling dispatchers that his stepfather shot at him, then shot his mother, and might be reloading a revolver. Deputies who reached the house found Kelvin Williams standing at the doorway to an open garage, smoking a cigarette. He came out only after repeated commands and was detained. Inside, officers found Tenisha Williams dead on the kitchen floor, and the gun was on the kitchen island near where Williams had been standing when police arrived.

At trial, prosecutors said jurors were shown home security footage that gave the clearest account of the shooting. The camera, they said, captured five shots in sequence. The first was fired at the teen’s head and missed. Two more were fired at Tenisha Williams and also missed. A fourth shot was fired at the boy as he ran to his room and missed again. Prosecutors said Kelvin Williams then walked toward his wife and fired a fifth shot that killed her. Tenisha Williams was out of the camera’s view, cornered in the kitchen, but the audio captured her pleading with him not to shoot. Afterward, prosecutors said, he could be heard asking, “You dead, [expletive]?” Authorities did not report any physical injuries to the teen or the younger child.

The state’s case reached beyond the gunfire itself. Rachel Ashe, a deputy chief assistant district attorney in the Domestic Violence Unit, said evidence showed Kelvin Williams had systematically isolated his wife and controlled where she went and how she moved through daily life. Prosecutors said he required her to wear a Bluetooth device so he could monitor her when she left the home. On the day of the killing, Ashe said, he had her buy and load the firearm that was later used in the shooting. Jurors heard from 13 witnesses over roughly three and a half days, and the state introduced about 150 exhibits, including the 911 call, security video, body camera footage, medical reports, crime scene images and recorded jail phone calls.

The legal outcome came quickly once the evidence was in. The trial began March 23, 2026, in Cherokee County Superior Court. Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before convicting Williams on all 13 counts in the indictment, including malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of family violence aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit murder, first-degree cruelty to children, two firearm-possession counts tied to the felony and three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Superior Court Judge Shannon Wallace then sentenced him to life without parole plus 100 years and 12 months. Wallace also ordered that he have no contact with all of Tenisha Williams’ children, the foster mother caring for them and their families.

Family members used the sentencing hearing to describe the life that came before the killing as well as the loss that followed it. Prosecutors said four people delivered victim impact statements. Relatives described years of abuse, intimidation and control, saying Tenisha Williams was not allowed to contact her adult children or attend her mother’s funeral. A close friend from church who later became the children’s foster mother told the court about her bond with them and her promise to remain present in their lives. In announcing the sentence, Wallace said the damage caused by the defendant was “unfathomable.” District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway said the punishment recognized that Tenisha Williams’ life mattered and that the violence against her was “evil and inexcusable.”

For now, the case now stands at the post-conviction stage, with the sentence entered and the trial record complete. The next formal milestone would be any appeal filed on Williams’ behalf after the March 26 verdict and sentencing.

Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.