Maine slay suspect no stranger to law enforcement
John Williams, 29, suspected of killing a Maine sheriff’s deputy, is an unemployed factory worker and convicted small-time burglar whose life seemed to go downhill, according to court records and people who know him.
Williams was born in Texas and has lived in Maine for the past 14 years.
Williams is an unemployed factory worker, according to the lawyer who represented him on his arraignment on gun charges in Newburyport last month. His education topped out with a GED. He has a girlfriend and, his lawyer said, is legally allowed to carry a firearm in Maine.
Williams once lived in the same small town in Maine, Norridgewock, as the officer he is suspected of killing, Somerset County Sheriff Cpl. Eugene Cole, Maine state records show.
His lawyer indicated Williams was a high-school dropout, saying he has a General Equivalency Diploma. Richard Rinaldi, who attended Skowhegan High School with Williams, told the Bangor Daily News that Williams had been a “standout kid” in school but had changed dramatically since.
“He’s a totally different person now,” Rinaldi, 29, of Skowhegan, told the newspaper, citing a recent encounter with the suspect.
Williams remained on the lam last night from police, who declared him “armed and dangerous.” The FBI released photos of a bearded, shaggy-haired Williams taken at a Cumberland Farms he is suspected of robbing after fatally shooting Cole and stealing his marked cruiser.
In 2005, Williams was convicted of felony burglary in Skowhegan and sentenced to 17 days’ incarceration, one year of probation and $500 restitution, according to the Maine State Bureau of Identification. In 2007, Williams was convicted of misdemeanor unauthorized taking or transfer in Fairfield, Maine, and sentenced to two days in jail, according to the report. In Tennessee, he faced drug charges dating to 2008 and was revived from an overdose at least once, authorities said. He had no criminal history in Massachusetts prior to his March 22 arrest on gun charges, the lawyer said.