Bradenton man found guilty of stabbing 18-year-old girlfriend, killing infant in fire
A Bradenton man was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday, court records show.
Larry Bernard Williams, 25, was charged with killing his ex-girlfriend, setting her apartment on fire and also killing their 8-month-old son.
The murder conviction means mandatory consecutive life sentences in state prison for Williams, according to court documents.
Williams was also found guilty of arson. That conviction’s sentencing is deferred, according to court records.
Williams previously told investigators he was there when “the demon which takes him over” stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Diamond Shelman, and lit the apartment on fire, according to Bradenton Herald reporting in 2017.
In 2019, Williams defense attorney “Christopher Boldt filed an intent to rely on an insanity defense as Williams suffers from schizophrenia, a major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder,” according to court records.
It was recently withdrawn for a not guilty plea and Hillsborough County-based attorney Kim Seace represented Williams in the trial.
The apartment fire was discovered on the morning of Aug. 27, 2017, by an off-duty firefighter who was passing Avalon Square Apartments at 3506 14th Street West.
Cedar Hammock Fire Rescue crews found Shelman, who was 18, and her son, Jeremiah, dead inside Unit 119. The firefighter saw a Chrysler 300, later identified as belonging to Williams, leaving the complex.
Crime scene technicians that investigated the apartment testified this week they found “blood spatters on a plastic shower curtain and clothes in the unit at Royal Palm Terrace Apartments in Bradenton that Williams allegedly returned to after the crime, as well as in his car,” the Herald reported.
An arson dog alerted a fire investigator to fire accelerant inside the apartment, on Diamond Shelman’s body and later alerted investigators to accelerant on clothes and shoes found inside Williams’ apartment as well in his Chrysler vehicle, according to testimony given at the trial this week.
The dog also indicated accelerant located on Williams’ lower body when it was taken to the sheriff’s office where he was held in 2017.
Williams, who was 20 at the time, was living at Royal Palm Terrace Apartments with Tydariah Mendez, who had a 1-year-old daughter with him at the time.
She testified this week that Williams left their apartment around 3 a.m. the morning of the fire, and woke up in the morning to find Williams walking back and forth inside their apartment.
Mendez said “she went back to sleep and later woke to a call from Williams telling her to go check on his car,” with Williams telling her he was helping a friend move, according to a Herald report this week.
Evidence introduced in the trial also included text messages between Williams and Mendez five days before the murders, a news release from state attorney Ed Brodsky said.
“During these text messages, (Williams) tells her to ‘make sure her tazor is charged real good’ and when the woman seems confused as to why he says, ‘sick of a (expletive) trying me, now it’s on,’” the news release said. “He also tells her to, ‘Look for that gas can to (sic).’ At the time, the woman had no reason to believe these text messages were anything other than a rant or that they foretold what he would do in five days.”
State attorneys Suzanne O’Donnell and Rebecca Freel prosecuted, while Judge Frederick P. Mercurio presided over the case.
This story was originally published May 5, 2023 at 2:35 PM.
