Son gets life plus 5 years for killing mom
♦ The husband of Sheila Williams said he hoped for a sentence of life without parole
160 times.
That’s how many times George Headen stabbed his mother after she invited him into her home for a fresh start.
He’d been in some trouble up in Ohio, Assistant Floyd County District Attorney Luke Martin said, and on Dec. 3, 2016, Sheila Williams was excited to give him a second chance here in Rome.
“She called her son her king. She was very proud of him,” Martin told the court. Even after Headen started acting oddly and being threatening to her and her guest at her home on Larkspur Lane she still tried to build him up.
“Sheila was still trying to brag on her son and his early accomplishments when he punched her in the face, breaking her nose,” Martin said.
Then he started stabbing her. A witness who was stuck in another part of the home described the terrible sounds as Headen used various knives and kitchen utensils to murder his mother.
“She brought her son to Rome to give him a new lease on life — to start over — and within four hours he took her life,” Martin told the court. “He killed her for nothing. He slaughtered her.”
It didn’t take long for jurors to return a guilty verdict and Floyd County Superior Court Judge Bryant Durham sentenced him to life plus five years in prison.
“I was hoping he’d get life without parole,” Charles Thomas, the husband of Sheila Williams, said.
Headen will likely be eligible for parole after serving 30 years in prison.
“In 30 years I will be a voice to see he doesn’t get out,” Thomas said.
He’d been Headen’s stepfather but had encouraged Sheila Williams to not deal with her son after he verbally abused her on several occasions.
“I didn’t like the way he talked to her,” Thomas said.
Floyd County District Attorney Leigh Patterson said her office argued for life without parole for Headen.
“This was the most horrendous crime we’ve seen. He deserved and warranted life without for parole,” District Attorney Leigh Patterson said. “We will be filing supplemental paperwork with the board of pardons and paroles to make sure he never gets out of jail.”
Headen’s attorney Randall Williams asked that his client be found guilty but mentally ill but Durham denied that.
During his closing argument Williams asked the jurors to look at the entire case and pay attention to any holes they might find in the case.
“In my mind they haven’t proven it,” Williams told the jury. “It could have very easily been someone else.”
Williams said there were gaps in the investigation using a medical examiner’s testimony where, as an example, he said they did not test blood found at the scene.