Inside A MEDIA GENERAL NEWSPAPER >- -i 900� 71 1 Complete weather O inforaiton on 2A Obituaries - 7A z Sports - 1-2B S TV Listings -.4B 2 Sectionmi, 16 Pages olupnc 86 - Number 190 Hornets roll by Tigers -1B SD Ctn3 JobSqe 10 1 0'03 * r **********ORIGIN MIXED ADC 324 LIBRARY OF FLORIDA HISTORY PO BOX 117007 GAINESVILLE FL 32611-7007 J : : ' :THURSDAY Testimony begins in murder trial By DEBORAH BUCKHALTER FLORIDAN STAFF WRITER Defense attorney Walter Smith took aim at one of the state's key witnesses on the first day of testi- mony in the quadruple murder trial of Wesley Jonathan Williams. The last man on the stand Wednesday was Donald Allen, a self-proclaimed close friend of Williams. He told investigators in 2006 that Williams confessed to him that he'd killed Danielle Baker and her three young sons. Baker, Williams' ex-girlfriend, was shot to death and her three sons were suffocated. Williams fathered the two oldest boys. Allen's 2006 statement was dramatically different than what he'd told investigators in 2005. In those previous statements, Allen claimed to have no knowvl- edge of any rift between Baker and Williams. But in the 2006 statement, Allen was interviewed while incarcerated' in a nearby county jail. In that interview, Allen told investigators Williams confessed to the crime and once showed him paperwork that had made Williams angry with Baker. Allen said the paperwork was related to his tax or child support obligations. When Allen referred in court to those investigators by their first names, Smith latched on to that, referring to the team as Allen's "good buddies." Smith made much of the fact that Allen is not currently behind bars, even Man tries to flee traffic stop STAFF REPORT .Marianna police say they arrested a driver Tuesday after he not only failed to yield for a traf- fic stop, but led officers on a chase through city streets. Larry Ragan Sconiers, 44, of 2934 Sylvia Drive, was taken to the county jail on charges of flee- ing and attempting to elude police, and reckless driving. According to a news release from' the Marianna Police Department, an officer attempted to stop a white pickup truck with faulty tail lights Tuesday. The driver refused to stop and led officers on a pursuit, at one point almost striking a vehicle head on, police said. The driver blew through several stop signs and made a few hard turns in an attempt to flee, according to police. The vehicle finally came to a stop in an open lot where Sconiers was taken into custody. Expired tag leads to multiple charges STAFF REPORT A' Chattahoochee resident found himself facing multiple charges after Marianna police pulled him over Tuesday for an expired tag. According to a news release from the Marianna Police Department, an officer pulled over a black SUV driven by Jason Carl Hall, 23, because the tag on the vehicle had expired. After running Hall's name, the officer also learned his license had been suspended, and the vehicle's registration had been canceled. According to the news release, the officer obtained Hall's per- mission to search the vehicle, which led to the discovery of pre- scription medication. Police did See TAG, Page 7A > though it appears he has alleged- ly committed a violation of pro- bation in a criminal case of his own. Smith also pointed to other inconsistencies in Allen's state- ments, including the time frame of Williams' alleged confession to him. Allen told investigators in 2006 that Williams had once fired a .38 handgun in his presence while he was visiting Williams at his apartment in Sneads. Thinking a bullet might be found in the yard outside Williams residence, investigators did indeed search the grounds, and they found one. Allen said in one instance, Williams had made his confes- sion on the same day that bullet was fired in Sneads. In another instance, Allen said the bullet was fired in Sneads before the killings occurred. Smith wanted to know how those statements and others Allen made could be reconciled, and continued to chip away at Allen's credibility. Allen was the last in a string of the defendant's acquaintances who took the stand Wednesday, but the day of testimony started with a state Department of Revenue employee who talked about Baker's attempt to get child support from Williams. That effort, led by the state, began in June 2003 for their older. son, Ahmaad, and in May 2004 for their younger child, Amarion. It was determined Williams would be obligated to pay about Wesley Jonathan Williams, left, talks with defense counsel Walter Smith during opening.arguments Wednesday. Williams is on trial for the alleged murder, of his former girlfriend and three of her chil- dren, -Mark Skinner/Floridan $676 a month for the two chil- dren, according to Iris Barkley, a Florida Department of Revenue Child Support Enforcement divi- sion employee who supervises the Marianna office. The state was also seeking reimbursement of about $2, 457 from Williams, public assistance Baker had received. Mothers who receive public assistance are obligated to name the father in order to continue receiving assistance. Barkley testified Baker was not only co-operative, but aggres- See TRIAL, Page 7A > Hills residents ask for county's help BY DEBORAH BUCKHALTER FLORIDAN STAFF WRITER Some property owners at Compass Lake in the Hills have petitioned the Jackson County Commission for changes in the ordinance which governs the Municipal Services la .,,ig Unit, or MSTU, in their subdivision. Commissioners on Tuesday agreed to revisit the document, but said they may not be able to do anything about what's really both- ering the petitioners. The group wants the commission to help them do away with the one-lot, one-vote structure of the Property Owners Association in the Hills. County attorney Frank Baker advised the commission Tuesday that the county really has no right to interfere with the inner work- ings of what is essentially a private entity. The relationship between the POA, the county and the MSTU is sometimes murky in the minds of those who live in the communi- ty. The commission's interests in the matter, Baker said, are restricted and the county has a limited role. It has a contractual arrangement with the POA, in which the POA board of directors manages the budget generated by the MSTU. The POA also presents the county with a budget proposal at the beginning of each fis- cal year. Although the commission is not obligated to adopt it, the MSTU ordinance states that the county will at least hear it. For many years,' the county adopted the POA's proposed budget without much chal- lenge. However, growing unrest in the community about how the money is spent led commis- sioners to take a more active role in recent years. This year, the county also considered and eventually adopted an alternative budget, one presented by those opposing the POA directors' proposed budget. " The petitioners, represented Tuesday by Ron Wilson, want the county to strike the language calling for commission to hear | f . , . Residents of Compass Lake in the Hills voice their concerns during a recent meeting the Compass Lake Lodge. Some residents are asking the county commission to intervene in their dispute with management. -Mark Skinner/Floridan POA-submitted budgets. But their issues go farther than that. The petitioners say the POA's one-lot, one- vote rule is making the lives of single-lot owners unbearable. According to them, absentee owners n ith multiple lots have motives against the inter- ests of the community as a whole, and are .. * . , able to control things by voting in blocks on a multitude of issues. Baker pointed out that all those who bought property in the subdivision bough with full knowledge of the POA's voting structure. More importantly for the county, though, he said the government does not have a role in how the entity governs itself. Si 4 % Copyrighted Material Syndicated Content Available from Commercial News Providers This Newspaper Is Printed On Recycled Newsprint 7 65161 50 9 TN( fNEA's.#1 CLASSIFID SOURcd WIREGRASS CLASSIFIED MARKETPLACE See Pages 6-8B The best bank in the neighborhood. mPoplesFist I 2900JeffersonStreet 850-526-5557 'www.pecplE.s-,I, . nF IC I--I , I - �.i 2 v, --,-ir-