'Completely senseless': Judge slams 'most violent' man in punishing him for teen's 2012 slaying

WEST PALM BEACH — Describing the 2012 killing of a Palm Springs teen as calculated, planned and "completely senseless," a judge has imposed consecutive life sentences against a man convicted in the teen's death.

Anthony Jamal Williams — described in court by a West Palm Beach police officer as one of "most violent individuals we've dealt with" — received two life prison sentences in addition to a 25-year sentence during a hearing before Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd on April 3 at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.

Jurors in August found Williams guilty of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and armed robbery in the Jan. 3, 2012, shooting that killed 17-year-old Jake Duchene and wounded Duchene's friend, Zachary Wolfe, along Windsor Avenue in West Palm Beach.

Witnesses identified Williams as a gunman in Duchene's death days after the shooting, but authorities did not pursue charges against him until May 2020. At the time of his arrest in Duchene's death, Williams was serving a four-year prison sentence for two homicides that occurred in 2016.

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Shootings stemmed from marijuana sale that became a robbery

City police investigators said Williams, who is now 28 and who was 16 at the time, had arranged to buy one-quarter pound of marijuana from Duchene that night as a ruse to rob him.

Investigators said Williams and another teen, Tyrie Theophile, carried out the robbery, with the encounter turning deadly when Duchene resisted as Williams attempted to take the keys to his truck.

A jury convicted Theophile in 2015 of second-degree murder, aggravated battery and robbery and sentenced him to 45 years in prison.

The 4th District Court of Appeal upheld the conviction but vacated the sentence, ruling that Circuit Judge Karen Miller mistakenly said in her sentencing remarks that Theophile pulled out or brandished a firearm. The appellate court ordered that Theophile be resentenced under a different judge. The case is scheduled for a hearing this month, records show.

A cooperating witness told investigators that Williams fatally shot Duchene and wounded Wolfe. However, jurors found that state prosecutors failed to prove that Williams either fired or was in possession of a weapon at the time of the robbery.

During Monday's sentencing hearing, Shepherd rejected arguments from defense attorneys that Williams played a "tangential" role in Duchene's killing, saying that his actions created an environment that put the lives of Duchene and Wolfe in danger.

“Nothing to put Mr. Duchene or Mr. Wolfe in danger happened until Mr. Williams came to scene,” Shepherd said in her sentencing remarks.

She noted testimony at trial from Wolfe, who indicated that he and Duchene had cooperated when the robbers demanded they surrender the marijuana, but Duchene resisted when Williams attempted to grab the keys to the truck Duchene had just received from Christmas.

"You need to be locked away for the rest of your life," Shepherd said to Williams.

Murder victim's mother says family serving 'triple life sentence'

Prior to the sentencing, Renee Duchene, Jake's mother, took to the stand to describe the impact this his death has had on their family

"The day Jake was killed has forever changed me," she said. "Me, my husband, my daughter, the three of us are doing a triple life sentence."

She showed the court a photograph of a kindergarten graduation photo, the only graduation memory that she will ever have of Jake as he was still a high school student at the time of his death. She spoke of Jake's love for the outdoors and how he dreamed of one day becoming a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer. She at times spoke pointedly and directly to Williams.

"How dare you?" she said. "You took the life that I was given to love, to cherish, to raise well and to respect life. How dare you take my son's life in this horrible way? What gives you the right to kill my son?"

Describing what justice for Jake meant to her, she said "It means that I hope you die in prison. You should never be able to terrorize another person."

Williams was imprisoned for murder at the time of his 2020 arrest

Shepherd admonished Williams for smirking as Renee Duchene neared the conclusion of her impact statement. Williams declined to make a statement of his own.

During his sentencing remarks, Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott described a pattern of violent behavior by Williams that continued in the years since Jake Duchene's death.

Williams and a co-defendant, Brandon Deshad Mills, had taken best-interest pleas in 2018 as juries were being selected in the September 2016 fatal shooting of Willie Denard Garvin of West Palm Beach. Williams and Mills had been indicted only weeks earlier in the August 2016 shooting death of Garvin's son, Erionte Sheely. Both men pleaded to lesser charges of manslaughter and were sentenced to concurrent four-year prison terms.

Speaking in court Monday, West Palm Beach police Sgt. Brian Patterson described Williams as one of the "most violent individuals we've dealt with."

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Life sentence for 'most violent' man found guilty in teen's 2012 murder