Guilty verdict in West Palm murder comes 10 years after gunfire killed teen, wounded friend
WEST PALM BEACH — More than a decade after a marijuana deal turned violent and claimed the life of a Palm Springs teen, a jury has found a West Palm Beach man guilty of his murder.
Jurors on Monday found Anthony Jamal Williams, 27, of West Palm Beach guilty of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and armed robbery in the January 2012 shooting that killed 17-year-old Jake Duchene and wounded Duchene's friend, Zachary Wolfe.
Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd postponed sentencing for Williams, who was 16 at the time of Duchene's death. She ordered that Williams be held without bail and scheduled a hearing for Nov. 10.
Click here to view the homicides tracker in a larger window »
Know your weapon: He thought he was 'dry-firing' a gun. It turns out it was loaded, and now his friend is dead.
Human trafficking: Five years later, one of Palm Beach County's first human trafficking arrests ends in guilty plea
Juvenile charged: Riviera Beach fatal shooting leaves 17-year-old facing murder charge as adult
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.
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.
In the days after Duchene's death, Wolfe identified Williams as one of two teens involved in the attack. A cooperating witness told investigators Williams had arranged to buy one-quarter pound of marijuana, worth about $800, from Duchene as a ruse to rob him.
The witness said Williams spoke with Duchene through the driver’s side window of Duchene’s pickup parked along 39th Street and Windsor Avenue in West Palm Beach.
Wolfe told investigators that two males with guns approached and demanded that he and Duchene surrender the drugs. He reported that he handed over the bag of marijuana, but someone started shooting as Duchene started the vehicle.
Within a month of the fatal shooting, another person, Tyrie Theophile, then 16, was indicted on murder, attempted murder and robbery charges. In 2015, a jury found that Theophile, now 27, was present at the time of the shooting but did not have a gun on him, and ruled him guilty of a lesser charge of second-degree murder.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen Miller sentenced Theophile to 45 years in prison. In 2018, the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld Theophile's conviction but threw out the sentence, determining that Miller mistakenly stated that Theophile pulled out and brandished a firearm.
The court remanded Theophile's case for resentencing under a different circuit judge. It is scheduled for a hearing in October.
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: Man convicted of murder in 2012 West Palm Beach homicide
