Nearly six years after two women were found brutally slashed to death inside a luxury condominium in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, a man has been sentenced for their murders.
Franklin Delanoy Williams, 51, was charged Friday with killing his girlfriend Sophia Simpson, 35, and her cousin Gabrella Griffiths, 27, on May 7, 2019. A jury found him guilty of two counts of second-degree murder.
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During the trial, Williams took the stand and confessed to killing the two women, saying he killed them in self-defense.
“She grabbed the knife and I was sitting on the bed,” Williams said on the stand Thursday. “She came and stabbed me. I put my hand up and she got a cut.”
Franklin Delanoy Williams, 51, stabbed his girlfriend Sophia Simpson, 35, and her cousin Gabrella Griffiths, 27, during an argument on May 7, 2019. He has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
But prosecutors rejected the claim of self-defense, pointing out that Simpson was found with more than 50 wounds, while his cousin was found with 10 wounds.
“He attacked her with a knife and stabbed her 50 times, mainly in her back, back, back of her head and neck,” prosecutor Lindsey Davis said in closing arguments. “And she has a defensive wound on her hand trying to protect and defend herself.”
Jurors began deliberating Friday afternoon and reached their verdict shortly after deliberating for about two hours.
Mr. Williams now faces life in prison.
