Tennessee authorities on Tuesday evening announced the capture of fugitive Sean Williams, who is accused of raping women and children, in Florida after a weeks-long chase down the East Coast.
Williams, former owner of Glass and Concrete Contracting LLC in Johnson City, was recently arrested and charged with 20 counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, three counts of child rape and three counts of sexual battery stemming from three separate cases in Washington County before he escaped custody in October.
A "Most Wanted" fugitive, Williams, 52, "was located and arrested in Pinellas County, Florida," according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and U.S. Marshal Service Eastern District of Tennessee.
"Everybody up here in Tennessee is certainly very relieved to have this guy back in custody," U.S. Marshal David Jolley told Fox News Digital. "This guy is a real predator of human beings – real dangerous guy. Always happy to have guys like that back off the streets."
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State and federal law enforcement officials, including U.S. Marshals, were able to trace Williams to a pickup truck stolen out of North Carolina on Nov. 17. Officials were then able to track the truck to Pinellas County, Florida, last week "through some very good investigative work," Jolley said.
A 7-Eleven clerk in Largo, Florida, on Thursday called authorities to report that Williams had been in his store.
"Sean Williams was apprehended without incident after being tracked down by a K9 team with the @SheriffPinellas. Great work by all agencies involved!" TBI said in a Thursday post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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Jolley said his birthday was on Thursday, and he told his wife when she asked what he wanted, "Well, capturing Sean Williams would be a great birthday present."
Williams was being transported from the Laurel County Correctional Center in Kentucky back to his home state of Tennessee in October when he allegedly kicked open the rear window of a vehicle and ran, according to the Greene County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee.
"During travel it appears that the inmate was able to utilize a component of the van[']s headrest to free himself from his hand restraints then to pry the protective screening and force the side window out of the rear of the transport vehicle," Laurel County jailer Jamie Mosley said in a Facebook post at the time of Williams' escape. "He then exited the vehicle through the window area, he was spotted moments later covered with blood in the Davis Street area of Greenville, TN."
On top of the Washington County sexual assault charges, the 52-year-old suspect also faces dozens of federal child sexual abuse charges.
"Williams is desperate to escape custody and has attempted previously," the U.S. Marshal Service for the Eastern District of Tennessee said in a Wednesday press release. He could face life in prison if convicted.
TBI offered a $2,500 award for information leading to the suspect's arrest.
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All the victims mentioned in the lawsuit allegedly became incapacitated after drinking or using drugs at Williams' apartment or with his accomplices. They also all allege that Williams tried to rape or assault them while they were incapacitated.
The suspect previously pushed back against the allegations in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital published last month.
"[D]ue to my luxury place and willingness to spend money on others, I became popular quickly. My reputation became someone with money that like[s] women and parties and people," Williams said, adding that "anyone who came downtown JC more than once was familiar with" him or his parties.
Prior to the federal lawsuit, Williams had been on the run for two years after former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kateri Dahl – who alleges in a civil lawsuit that Johnson City officials fired her after she brought forth her concerns about Williams – charged him with being a felon in possession of ammunition in 2021.
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North Carolina police eventually caught up with Williams in April, learned he was a fugitive and executed search warrants, finding videos on his electronic devices that allegedly showed him raping 52 different women. Additionally, one of the thumb drives allegedly contained more than 5,000 images of child pornography, the spokesperson said.
In July, Williams allegedly tried to escape the Washington County Detention Center.
Details of the escape are not included in the federal lawsuit filed against Williams, but later that month, a federal grand jury indicted him on an additional charge for the effort to escape the county jail.
Dahl is now acting as a whistleblower in raising awareness about JCPD's alleged mishandling of the victims' cases and concerns. She has filed her own lawsuit against Johnson City and a disclosure with the Justice Department, according to Whistleblower Aid.
