Prosecutors told jurors the evidence captured both the sequence of shots and the final moments before Tenisha Williams was killed in her kitchen.
CANTON, Ga. — The case against Kelvin Demond Williams was built from a frightened teen’s 911 call, home security camera footage and the physical evidence left inside a Cherokee County kitchen where prosecutors said he killed his wife and tried to kill her son.
That evidence persuaded jurors in Cherokee County Superior Court to convict Williams, 48, on all 13 counts on March 26, 2026, and led to a sentence of life without parole plus 100 years and 12 months. The importance of the record went beyond proving who fired the shots. Prosecutors also used it to argue that the attack on July 13, 2025, was the violent peak of a much longer pattern of isolation, surveillance and control inside the home.
The first crucial piece came from the 16-year-old stepson, who called 911 at about 10:40 p.m. from a bedroom where he was hiding. Prosecutors said he told the dispatcher that his stepfather had shot at him, then shot his mother, and was possibly loading a revolver. That call fixed the timing, identified the suspect and told deputies what they might face before they even reached the house on Daventry Crossing in the Woodstock area. It also made clear that another child, a 4-year-old boy, was still inside the home asleep in another bedroom. When deputies arrived, prosecutors said, they found Kelvin Williams standing at the doorway to the open garage, smoking a cigarette. He was detained after repeated commands, and the children were removed from the home.
The second key piece was the security camera inside the house. Prosecutors said the footage showed five shots in a sequence that matched the teen’s account and supported separate charges for the attack on him and the killing of his mother. The first shot was fired at the boy’s head and missed. Two shots then went toward Tenisha Williams and also missed. A fourth shot missed the teen as he ran to his room. Prosecutors said the camera then showed Kelvin Williams move toward his wife and fire the fifth shot, killing her. Tenisha Williams was out of frame, cornered in the kitchen, but the camera audio captured her pleading with him not to shoot. Afterward, according to prosecutors, the recording picked up him saying, “You dead, [expletive]?”
The third layer of proof came from what deputies found after the gunfire stopped. Tenisha Williams, 48, was on the kitchen floor. The firearm used in the shooting was on the kitchen island, where authorities said Kelvin Williams had been standing when they arrived. Jurors also saw body camera video, crime scene photographs and medical reports, according to the district attorney’s office. Taken together, prosecutors argued, the materials did not leave major gaps about where the shots were fired, where the victims were positioned or what happened in the minutes before deputies entered. What remained unknown in public records was the exact argument that began the confrontation inside the home before shots were fired.
The prosecution then widened the frame beyond the scene itself. Rachel Ashe of the district attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit said evidence showed Kelvin Williams had long controlled his wife’s movements and systematically isolated her. Prosecutors said he required her to wear a Bluetooth device so he could monitor her when she left the home. They also said that on the day of the killing, he had her buy and load the same firearm later used in the shooting. Those details gave jurors a motive theory rooted in domination rather than a random outburst, and family testimony at sentencing described years of abuse and intimidation that, prosecutors argued, fit that pattern.
The legal steps moved fast once the state rested. Trial began March 23 and lasted about three and a half days. Prosecutors called 13 witnesses and introduced about 150 exhibits. Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before convicting Williams of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of family violence aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit murder, first-degree cruelty to children and multiple firearm offenses, including possession by a convicted felon. Judge Shannon Wallace immediately imposed life without parole plus 100 years and 12 months and ordered no contact with Tenisha Williams’ children, their foster mother and their families.
In the end, the case stood out for the way its central moments were preserved in real time. A teenager’s call for help, a camera’s silent view of the kitchen and the voices heard on audio became the backbone of the prosecution, and the next milestone now would be any appeal filed after the March 26 conviction and sentence.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.