Orlando, FL: Deborah Fielding's "Crack Head" Killer Is Linked To Other Brutal Attacks....
Slimpickins
By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
of The Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on June 17, 2000
In the few weeks before and after someone strangled a bartender to death, a
heavyset man terrorized parts of downtown Orlando and Orange County.
Overpowered and often helpless, these people say they were beaten, choked or
strangled in at least a dozen similar attacks.
Police say the man responsible is the same one identified by investigators
as the primary suspect in the April 5 slaying -- Kenneth "Kenny" Williams.
Only a few days after Deborah Fielding`s body was found in Langford Park, a
75-year-old retiree was robbed by a man who told him that he "killed that
girl downtown" and killing others "didn`t matter."
The victim later identified Williams as the robber, police said.
During a six-week crime spree, what began with a car burglary and stolen
checks March 1 quickly escalated to muggings, armed robberies, carjackings
and then a slaying, investigators said.
"I think his violence was increasing," Orlando homicide Detective Emmett
Browning said. "He was definitely out of control."
Police named Williams, alias "Biscuit," as their suspect in Fielding`s
slaying on Thursday, the same day he had an in-jail arraignment on charges
of attempted murder, carjacking, kidnapping, battery and armed robbery
stemming from five of the dozen attacks in which he is charged.
Police and victims said the 6-foot-2 Jones High School graduate preyed on
tourists, women alone, clerks, parking-garage attendants and elderly
residents.
"He was going to where the most vulnerable people were," Browning said.
Poking victims in the side, pulling their hair, pinning them to the ground,
and sometimes choking them -- all matched a single suspect, police said.
The 75-year-old retiree, carjacked at knifepoint April 10, vividly recalls
his attacker`s fist pounding his back while he was lying down on his car`s
passenger seat.
After giving the man his credit cards and codes, he was choked with his own
belt and dumped unconscious in woods near Memorial Middle School in west
Orlando.
The retiree also said he recalls the man`s words that late afternoon, "I
killed that girl downtown just a couple of days ago. You`re next."
Detectives said "the only reason I`m alive is because he thought I was
dead," the retiree recalled.
Only an hour before the 4:30 p.m. attack April 10, a woman walked out to her
car outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken at 104 S. Orange Blossom Trail. She
left her door ajar while fetching promotional boxes from the back seat.
Grabbed by her ponytail, the 37-year-old UCF psychology major was forced
inside her car and pinned on the seat. At first, she calmly told her
attacker she couldn`t find her car keys.
She fought back when she realized he did not have a gun and instead he was
using his index finger. She opened her passenger-side door and dove to the
ground.
"He wanted to abduct me in my car," said the woman. She later identified
Williams and he was charged with carjacking, battery and false imprisonment.
"Debbie Fielding`s fate, that would have been my case as well if I hadn`t
gotten out of the car," she said Friday.
She remembered Williams, 41, as confident, even "good-looking, but messed up
in his head, a crackhead." Police said they believe all the robberies were
motivated by Williams` cocaine use.
On April 11, records show, a man later identified as Williams stole a $325
gold necklace from an Orlando hospital and carjacked a woman at the Florida
Mall.
On April 14, according to records, he withdrew $300 with a woman`s bank card
after carjacking her vehicle at a Disney-area hotel. Two days later, he
robbed a hotel clerk of $500 after holding a black handgun to him, police
said.
Then on April 17, Williams was arrested in a near-fatal encounter with the
sheriff`s auto-theft squad. He was shot and paralyzed at the wheel of the
car stolen at the Florida Mall, deputies said.
The Orlando Police Department`s central patrol section noticed a dip in
crime stats after Williams` arrest. "He had an impact on his own," Sgt. Tom
Decker of the robbery unit said.
The retiree, who recovered from a hernia caused by a kick during the
carjacking, said he is relieved Williams is paralyzed so he cannot victimize
others.
For investigators, Williams` paralysis and no-bail status gives them time to
consider him in more crimes, including the killing March 7 of downtown
architect James E. Windham III.
"He`s sitting in jail and he`s not going anywhere," Browning said.
http://orlandosentinel.com/automagic/news/2000-06-17/NWSkenny17061700.html