The case ended with a stayed prison term after prosecutors reduced the charge from reckless homicide to negligent handling of a dangerous weapon.

MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee teenager who admitted shooting his father to death during a family confrontation will avoid prison after a judge stayed a five- to eight-year sentence and placed him on probation, court records and local reports show.

The sentence resolved a case that began July 2, 2025, inside an apartment near West Atkinson Avenue, where relatives were gathered and a dispute between parents turned deadly. Corey D. Williams, who was 18 at the time, originally faced a second-degree reckless homicide charge in the death of his 47-year-old father, Corey Williams Sr. By the time the case reached sentencing in February 2026, prosecutors had agreed to a plea to homicide by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon, sharply changing the punishment range and the way the killing was framed in court.

Police were called to the apartment at about 2:40 p.m. after a 911 caller said, “My grandson shot his daddy.” Officers arrived to find Williams Sr. on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds. A handgun was recovered near the body, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the criminal complaint described in local reports, Williams had been living with another relative after his father kicked him out about two weeks earlier. On the day of the shooting, he and his mother went to the apartment to pick up younger siblings. Investigators said the adults began arguing and the son stepped in. Prosecutors said the father grabbed him by the collar while holding one gun, and the son then pulled a different 9 mm handgun and fired multiple shots.

That sequence became the center of the case because it did not fit neatly into either a planned killing or a clear self-defense narrative. Public reports said the elder Williams was shot in the arm, shoulder, chest, abdomen and groin. The number and placement of the wounds initially supported the more serious reckless homicide charge. But the plea agreement reached months later suggests both sides saw risk in taking the case to trial. The defense had pointed to the father’s own gun during the confrontation, while prosecutors still had to prove the younger Williams’ handling of his weapon went beyond panic and crossed into criminal recklessness. The final plea to negligent homicide reflected a less severe legal conclusion, even though the underlying facts remained stark.

The case also unfolded inside a family already under strain. Williams had recently been forced out of the home and was not living with his father at the time of the shooting. The family gathering that day appears to have been tied to custody and household arrangements involving younger children, not to a planned confrontation. That made the violence feel more sudden and domestic than calculated. Still, the apartment scene left little doubt that the conflict had escalated quickly. Relatives were present. A mother called for help. A father ended up dead on the floor. Even after the plea, those human facts continued to shape how the case was understood outside court.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Swanson imposed a five- to eight-year prison sentence, then stayed it and ordered five years of probation. That means Williams will not go to prison unless he violates the terms of supervision. The sentence balanced punishment with the court’s apparent view that the defendant’s age, family circumstances and reduced conviction justified a chance outside prison walls. Prosecutors did not preserve the original reckless homicide count at sentencing, and no public reports described further contested hearings over intent. The outcome left the case legally settled, though it is likely to remain one of the more painful family homicide cases on Milwaukee’s north side in recent years.

Williams is now on probation under the stayed sentence entered in Milwaukee County court. The next milestone would come only if he violates supervision or seeks later review of the conviction.

Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.