Quentric Williams will serve life in prison plus 15 years without the chance of parole for shooting and killing a man last year at the Starlight Drive-In Theater.
Convicted of murder last week in the May 15, 2012, death of martial arts expert Mitt Lenix, Williams received the maximum sentence.
“This is probably one of the more senseless crimes I’ve seen in some time,” DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams told Williams when he announced the sentence. “We’re here because of your conduct and the actions that you took.”
In addition to murder, Williams, 32, was convicted of aggravated assault, felony murder — killing someone while committing a felony — fleeing from police and other charges linked to shooting Lenix as he approached Williams’ pickup truck to ask for a jump-start.
After killing Lenix, Williams led police on a high-speed chase from south DeKalb to the Gwinnett County border, slamming his rented truck into police cars and tossing thousands of dollars in cash out the window as he drove.
He wrecked the truck and abandoned it, discarding one of three guns he had and leaving behind his unconscious girlfriend.
Police arrested Williams the next day in a Gwinnett hotel room with a gun, cash and a stash of marijuana.
During the hearing Wednesday, Williams took the stand to clarify his statements from his trial last week.
“I didn’t kill him on purpose,” Williams said.
While Lenix’s father, William Lenix, said he forgave Williams, the elder Lenix said Williams “didn’t deserve to walk among other Americans.”
“Mr. Quentric represents everything in this world that is evil,” Lenix said from the witness stand. “He said he never meant to hurt anyone, yet as an admitted drug dealer, he was harming people slowly every day.”
Williams’ cousin, Travis Williams, spoke in his support, pleading with the court for a chance at parole and to forgo what was tantamount to exacting revenge on behalf of Lenix’s family.
“You have to forgive him,” said Travis Williams, who admitted to wanting retribution against the person convicted of killing his 6-year-old son seven years ago. “(But) Quentric going to jail for the rest of his life is just like killing him. That’s revenge.”
Williams’ attorney also asked the judge to rule mercifully.
“The jury has ruled and found Quentric Williams guilty of murder,” Russell Hetzel said. “But the evidence the jury found was not evidence of a premeditated, vicious assault. It was evidence of a reaction … an action of defense.”
But Assistant DeKalb District Attorney Zina B. Gumbs said the jury convicted Williams because he continued to act like a criminal after two prior prison stints for drug convictions.
“It is clear that the jurors were not appeased by the defendant admitting that he was ‘merely’ a drug dealer,” Gumbs said, noting that even though Williams was on parole the night Lenix was killed, he was violating state law as a convicted felon carrying firearms. “It is clear that this individual has no intent of following the law.”
