Bridgeport man gets 12 years in fatal shooting case
BRIDGEPORT – Billy Ray Jones got his first break when the state Supreme Court overturned his 50-year prison sentence for murder.
His second break came Friday when he was instead sentenced to 12 years, a term that means he will do very little if any more time.
“Your release is based on a significant technicality but we, the family of Michael Williams, continue with knowing he is no longer here with us,” the victim’s uncle, Terry Walden, told Jones from across the courtroom. “The original sentence had some solace for our family but you will never serve enough time. We only hope you redeem yourself by doing the opposite of what you have been.”
In January 2017, Jones, of Bridgeport, was convicted by a Superior Court jury on murder, possession of a pistol without a permit and criminal possession of a firearm charges for the 2010 fatal shooting of 29year-old Michael Williams. He was sentenced in March 2017 to 50 years in prison.
In 2020, in a 4-to-3 decision, the state Supreme Court overturned Jones’ conviction agreeing with his lawyer that the trial judge had failed to properly instruct the jury on the fallibility of informant testimony.
Jones subsequently pleaded guilty to reduced charges of firstdegree manslaughter with a firearm, criminal possession of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit.
“I am accountable for what I did,” Jones told Superior Court Judge Kevin Russo during the sentencing hearing on Friday. “There is no excuse for what happened but I intend to make a better life for myself.”
His lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Richard Stannard, urged the judge to impose the plea bargained sentence.
“He has a true sense of remorse and a genuine desire to move forward,” Stannard told the judge.
“Up until today I did not know what grace looked like but I know what it looks like now as I look at the Walden family,” Russo said.
He then sentenced the 40-year-old Jones to 30 years, suspended after he serves 12 years and followed by five years of probation.
On June 21, 2010, Williams was found in the playground area of the Greene Homes housing project, with gunshot wounds to the head and arm.
While there were a number of people standing around the body when police arrived, no one admitted to seeing the shooting and the case remained unsolved for several years.
Two people later came forward and told police they had witnessed Jones shooting the victim. At the time the two witnesses both had criminal charges pending against them. One admitted at trial that he hoped to get favorable treatment from prosecutors in exchange for his testimony.