‘My son is gone.’ Mom lectures woman sentenced in Columbus murder, botched robbery

Anna Elizabeth Stecenko didn’t join her then-boyfriend and two others in the attempted robbery that killed Jaylin Jaquan “Bart” Williams outside his Columbus home in 2019.

But she knew what they were planning, and she didn’t warn Williams when she saw him earlier on Aug. 1, the day he was shot.

And after the shooting, she helped boyfriend Gerald Wayne Reed III dismantle and hide a gun he had used.

Williams’ mother, Angel King, neither forgot nor forgave Stecenko’s role in the slaying.

On Wednesday, Stecenko was the last defendant sentenced in the murder case, having pleaded guilty to evidence tampering.

As King testified about how her son’s death had affected her, she did not let Stecenko minimize her culpability.

Stecenko faced up to 10 years in prison, but instead got probation in exchange for her full cooperation in the prosecution of triggerman Jamal Seldon, who was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life.

King said Stecenko was just as guilty as Seldon, Reed and a third man charged in the case, Christian Desean Patrick.

“You still had a hand in this crime, and just like everybody else is serving time, you need to serve time, too,” she told Stecenko, who wept as she sat at the defense table in Judge John Martin’s courtroom.

That Stecenko testified for the prosecution in Seldon’s trial did not lessen her responsibility, King said.

“You were supposed to tell the truth,” she said. “That’s how you got down from murder to tampering with evidence, and you pled guilty because obviously you did something. That’s why people plead guilty.”

She noted that Stecenko could have warned Williams he was targeted for a robbery.

“My son is gone. I will never see my son again, period, because of your selfish actions. . . You could have gave him a warning. You could have said something, but you never did,” she said. “Maybe I’ll forgive you, but today ain’t that day because it’s too much.”

To Martin, King said, “My granddaughter will never see her father, and she’s four years old. I just want justice for my son, for this last person, and just get ready to heal. Just keep in mind that she needs to be held accountable for her actions in this crime.”

Stecenko also spoke Wednesday, begging forgiveness.

“Words cannot describe how sorry I am. Please forgive me for all the hurt I’ve caused by making poor decisions,” she said. “I’m sorry for your loss and everything you and your family have had to go through.”

She said she wished she could go back and change what happened, and noted that she spent 16 months in jail before being released on bond, after her arrest.

“I’m not the same person I was four years ago. . . I served 475 days in the Muscogee County Jail, and took each day to think over the bad decisions I made and have to live with,” she said.

Like the other defendants, Stecenko initially was charged with murder, as a party to the crime, before making a plea deal with prosecutors.

Martin sentenced her to eight years in prison with one to serve and the rest on probation. Because she was jailed more than a year awaiting trial, she will serve no additional time.

Had Martin sent her to prison, she likely would have been paroled almost immediately, with credit for the months she spent in jail, the judge told King.

She is not the only defendant to go free.

Patrick, also a crucial trial witness, was given no prison time after testifying to his role in the homicide at Williams’ home on Wallace Drive in midtown, where Patrick, Seldon and Reed tried to rob Williams, sparking a gunfight that left the 21-year-old aspiring rapper mortally wounded.

The plea deals with Patrick and Stecenko were negotiated before outside prosecutor Lewis Lamb was assigned the case. Lamb, the district attorney in Americus, told Martin that he likely would not have agreed to the same terms.

He spoke favorably of Stecenko, saying she spent hours with investigators going over the evidence, and was available whenever Lamb had a question, prior to Seldon’s trial.

Because Seldon could not have been convicted on the uncorroborated testimony of a co-conspirator, under the law, Stecenko’s taking the witness stand was crucial in confirming Patrick’s account, Lamb said.

Lamb and Stecenko’s attorney Susan Henderson noted that Stecenko risked her own safety, and her family’s, by cooperating with police. She had to move away after her house was shot up, with children inside.

Henderson said Stecenko didn’t warn Williams about the robbery, because she didn’t think the others would go through with it. “Anna truly believed that she had called them off,” Henderson said.

What happened?

According to testimony from Seldon’s trial and from Stecenko’s guilty plea in 2022, Williams was gunned down in a botched robbery after Reed tried to enlist Stecenko’s aid in the scheme.

Robbing Williams was Reed’s idea, and he wanted Stecenko, who was friends with Williams, to lure him outside his home so the three men could hold him at gunpoint.

Stecenko refused, provoking a heated argument that convinced her she needed to get Reed out of her home on Fairview Drive, where he had been staying.

After refusing to act as bait for the robbers, she dropped Reed off that day on Schatulga Road to meet with Patrick and Seldon, and then went to Williams’ home so Williams could replace a faulty THC-oil cartridge he had sold her for a vaping device.

She met Williams on the street, and left as soon as he gave her the cartridge, she said. She then went home and packed her things, intending to leave Reed and stay with her mother in Harris County.

Patrick testified that the Schatulga Road rendezvous was a “gambling house” where people came to socialize. That’s where Reed told him and Seldon they could “hit a lick,” slang for a robbery.

They took Patrick’s Hyundai Accent to Williams’ neighborhood, first parking on Melrose Drive, where they could watch Williams’ home, then moving to East Lindsey Drive.

Without Stecenko to draw Williams out, they waited for him to come outside, then started moving toward the front porch, with Reed carrying a Glock .45-caliber pistol and Seldon a black 9-millimeter.

Patrick said he was not armed, because his task was to take Williams’ valuables as Seldon and Reed held the victim at gunpoint.

They approached the house from the side, around 11 p.m., with Reed going first, Seldon second and Patrick behind hem, Patrick said.

Williams, who was armed with a 9-millimeter pistol, saw them coming, and an exchange of gunfire ensued.

Patrick said he and Seldon ran back to the car, but Reed fled in another direction. They did not await his return, and drove back to the house on Schatulga Road, where Patrick dropped Seldon off and went home, he testified.

None of the would-be robbers was wounded, but Williams was hit at least twice by 9-millimeter bullets, one penetrating his heart. A medical examiner said he bled to death.

Hiding the gun

As Patrick and Seldon fled, Reed was left to fend for himself.

He had left his cell phone in Patrick’s car, and lost his shoes running away.

He hid his gun and a camouflage jacket in a vacant house, and walked through the area knocking on doors, asking to use a phone. Police picked him up when the neighbors called 911, but released him after questioning.

That’s when he again sought Stecenko’s aid.

She and Reed returned to Williams’ neighborhood to find the gun Reed had hidden there, and took the weapon to Harris County, where her mother lived.

Reed said they disassembled the gun, and Stecenko ordered a replacement barrel, so any bullets or cartridges from the shooting could not be traced to the weapon.

They buried the firearm near the mother’s home, and Reed put the old gun barrel atop a refrigerator in the mother’s house, he said. He said Stecenko threw that barrel away, but police later recovered both the gun and the extra barrel.

Seldon was the only defendant to go to trial, after the others pleaded guilty. After his conviction, Martin sentenced him to life with possible parole, meaning he will serve 30 years before he’s eligible for release. He is 24 years old.

Reed, who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and using a gun to commit a felony, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He is 26.

Patrick, who went free in exchange for his testimony, is 25.

Stecenko also is 25 now, and has three children, 2-year-old twins and a son who’s 6, her attorney said. She has moved away from Columbus because of the threats she faced.

At Henderson’s request, Martin agreed to clear the public court record of any specific reference to Stecenko’s current address, to protect her from further retaliation.