La Plata, MD – A Charles County Circuit Court jury returned a conviction Wednesday, March 4 in the trial of James Williams Jr., 52 of Clinton, on three charges of driving on a suspended license, failure to provide a valid driver’s license to a police officer and driving without a license.
In a case where Judge James H. West exercised enormous patience and latitude, Williams represented himself, a move which he may have regretted when the defendant discovered he hadn’t entered a document he wanted into evidence, long after the jury heard closing arguments and were given instructions.
Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Jonathan Beattie said it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because the state would have objected to its admission as irrelevant, and West agreed.
The day began with testimony from Officer Harrison of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office, who stated that when he pulled Williams over in October of 2012, almost a year before the incident he is currently on trial for, the defendant provided him with the name James Tyrone Williams and his date of birth.
Beattie would later argue this was a key piece of evidence because it proved the Williams’ license was suspended a year before being arrested in July 2013, and that he was using Tyrone as an alias to the officer, when he admitted early on in the trial he has no middle name.
Beattie pointed out in closing arguments that Williams was notified by the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration four times in 1995 that his driving privileges were suspended and that none of those notifications were returned to the MVA as undeliverable.
“It wasn’t that he didn’t get them,” Beattie said, “he ignored them.”
On all four of those charges, he said, the defendant failed to appear in court. Each time he was notified that his license was suspended.
“As I said at the beginning of this trial, the defendant, Mr. Williams, doesn’t believe the law applies to him,” Beattie stressed.
Williams tried to downplay the two different names were his, asking the jury, “who has two driving records?”
He said the state’s attorney had provided “false and misleading evidence and false and misleading testimony.”
The jury deliberated for just over a half an hour before returning its verdict at 3:38 p.m.
Then it became a question of whether or not the defendant’s bond should be revoked, something Beattie asked West to consider.
Beattie’s concern was that Williams would leave the courtroom and get behind the wheel.
He pointed out the defendant already had a probation violation case coming up in Judge Helen I. Harrington’s courtroom and that his conviction in this case might constitute a violation of probation in that case.
“He picked up that charge the last time he was in court before Judge [Amy J.] Bragunier and left the courtroom and went right out into the parking lot and got behind the wheel to drive home, again, without a license,” Beattie explained.
West scheduled sentencing for Thursday, March 12 and told the defendant he could remain on bond as long as he doesn’t drive a motor vehicle, and he included motorcycles and tractors in that missive.
“You cannot set foot in a motor vehicle unless it is in the passenger seat or the back seat,” the judge said. “That is the condition of your bond.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com