A 33-year-old Little Rock man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for attacking a Pulaski County sheriff's deputy and an emergency-room doctor then stabbing his own wife in separate events about a month apart.
Court records show that Jeremy Jermaine Williams still faces a felony gun charge in Craighead County.
Sentencing papers filed Tuesday show Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree battery for the March 2019 attack on Deputy Tommy Shahan and Dr. Tom Bozzay, plus charges of second-degree battery and terroristic threatening for stabbing 36-year-old Tamika Williams in April 2019.
Under the conditions of his plea agreement, negotiated by public defender Jason Kordsmeier, deputy prosecutor Christy Bjornson agreed to not make a specific sentencing recommendation and leave the punishment up to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright. With six previous felony convictions, Williams faced up to 60 years in prison on the charges, each a Class D felony. Sentencing guidelines recommended at most a three-year term.
Court filings show that Williams was in the CHI St. Vincent Infirmary emergency room for undisclosed reasons March 16, 2019, when he set fire to a pile of clothing and bandages, court files show.
Hospital staff members put out the fire, which caused minor damage, and decided to move Williams to another room because of the smoke. Shahan, the deputy, was working off-duty for hospital security and helped move Williams, described as unstable in police reports, to the new room.
In the new room, Williams got upset, so Shahan got between him and the medical staff and told Williams to sit down. Instead, Williams lunged at Shahan and head-butted him in the face, then the men began to grapple on the floor.
Bozzay, a physician assistant, tried to help the deputy, and Williams rolled on top of Bozzay's arm during the fracas, injuring him. Additional security and medical staff members went to the men's aid and secured Williams, although he continued to fight them until Shahan used an electrical shock device on him. Williams was then handcuffed, sedated and put into a psychiatric monitoring room before being jailed.
Williams spent 80 days in custody, but two weeks after his release he was arrested at the Popeye's restaurant at 3208 S. University after he was seen attacking 36-year-old Tamika Renee Williams with a knife during an argument, court filings show. Jeremy Williams has been in custody since.
Williams was cleared to stand trial after a court-ordered mental evaluation found him competent to stand trial. Doctors diagnosed him with stimulant-use disorder.
Court records show his felony convictions are for drug possession and nonviolent property crimes, including forgery, breaking or entering, and possession of firearms by certain persons, with his most recent prior conviction coming in September 2012.
Williams has been accused twice of violent crimes, but those charges -- a 2012 aggravated robbery charge in Garland County and a 2017 first-degree battery case in Pulaski County -- were dropped.
His pending charges in Craighead County arise from a June 2018 drunken-driving arrest in Jonesboro in which police reported finding a stolen pistol under the driver's seat of his car.
Metro on 05/22/2020