Stoney Williams, left, who allegedly paid Wesley Vickers, right, $20,000 to have his ex-girlfriend Courtney Owens, center, murdered avoided prison time as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in Gwinnett County, Georgia. (Williams: Gwinnett County Police; Owens: Obituary; Vickers: Georgia Department of Corrections)
A Georgia A man who prosecutors say paid a hit man $20,000 to murder his ex-girlfriend and business partner will not go to prison as part of a plea deal agreed to on Monday.
Stoney Williams had been facing murder charges in the December 2022 death of 34-year-old Courtney Owens, who was shot to death in an apparently targeted killing at the car dealership the two owned in Gwinnett County outside Atlanta. But Williams pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, and the only jail time he received was the roughly 11 months he already served. Conspiracy to commit murder carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.
Williams will spend the next year on house arrest except to go to work and then serve 10 years probation, according to Gwinnett County District Attorney spokesman Marcus Garner. The triggerman, 24-year-old Wesley Vickers, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Vickers on Dec. 9, 2022, walked into the car dealership, forced Owens onto her knees and shot her to death, NBC affiliate WXIA reported.
Gwinnett County Police arrested Vickers a few weeks after the homicide. Cops then issued an arrest warrant for Williams in January 2023 after Vickers told them Williams paid him to kill her. Prosecutors said Williams wanted the business to himself and paid Vickers $20,000 to kill her, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Williams was arrested near Houston in April 2023.
“We have two convictions that are in accordance with the law in a terrible murder,” Garner said in a statement. “The plea was negotiated after evaluation of the case and consultation with the victim’s family.”
But some of Owens’ friends disagree with the plea deal.
“He’s allowed to be here, roaming the streets, enjoying life like we are while she’s buried under six feet of ground,” friend Ray Montanez told ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
Said another friend: “She got half the justice but what about the other half?”
A possible impetus for the deal was the state fearing it had missed a speedy trial deadline which would have resulted in an automatic acquittal, according to WSB. Garner insisted to Law&Crime that the state had not missed the deadline and prosecutors worked out the best deal they could and had the approval of Owens’ family. Garner said he wasn’t privy to why the prosecutors decided on a plea deal rather than go to trial.
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However, Williams’ attorney Rob Booker told WSB that prosecutors “dropped the ball” and missed the deadline which is what allowed the plea deal to come to fruition.
Owens’ mother Andrea Owens said in an interview with CBS affiliate WANF that her daughter is a hardworking entrepreneur.
“I loved my daughter and a part of me is gone. I miss her every day. She was a great impact on society and I’m her next of kin. She had a 12-year-old son and you know he’s without a mother,” Andrea Owens stated to the outlet.