Jury finds Sean Williams guilty of escape from van, not guilty of attempted escape from jail

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — A jury delivered a split verdict in former Johnson City business owner Sean Williams’ federal trial on two escape-related counts in U.S. District Court Friday.

Jurors pronounced Williams not guilty of an alleged attempted escape from the Washington County Detention Center on July 23, 2023 . They found him guilty on a separate count of escape from an incident on October 18, 2023, when Williams escaped from a prison transport van that was bringing him to a federal court hearing in Greeneville.

The verdict came on the trial’s fourth day. Williams, 52, faces a maximum of five years imprisonment on the count on which he was found guilty.

David Jolley, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee, expressed pleasure at the result.

“I am very pleased the Williams was found guilty of the escape from the Laurel County Corrections transport van,” Jolley said in a statement.

“Deputy U.S. Marshals and a number of other law enforcement officers did great work and spent a lot of hours working to get him back into custody.”

Williams was en route from the Laurel County, Ky. jail to a federal court hearing in Greeneville when he managed to escape as the van reached Greeneville. He was at large for more than a month before being captured in Pinellas County, Fla. Nov. 21, 2023.

Judge Ronnie Greer, who often clashed with Williams as Williams represented himself and frequently violated courtroom procedures, set sentencing for Nov. 18.

Greer told jurors at the start of the trial that prosecutors must prove the following beyond reasonable doubt in order to convict Williams:

• That Williams was legitimately in federal custody
• That he’d been arrested on a felony charge leading to that custody when each incident occurred
• That in the case of the actual escape, he “knowingly and voluntarily left custody without permission.”
• That in the attempt case, he committed an “overt act that was a substantial step toward leaving custody without permission” and that he knew his actions could result in his leaving without permission.

Prosecutors insisted during closing arguments that a journal found in Williams’ cell at Washington County included evidence that he had made “overt acts” that met the standard for being substantial steps toward an escape.

Greg Bowman tried to press home that multiple parts of Williams’ journal should be acceptable proof that he took at least one substantial step toward escaping. He argued that Williams had checked off items that could be argued as preparing for an escape.

“He was caught relatively early in his attempt,” Bowman said. “Even so, he had done numerous things, checked off in his journal as he went … they’re multiple substantial steps toward his attempt to escape.”

Williams suggested any such arguments weren’t enough. He had said Thursday the journals were nothing more than an example of him exercising his right to free speech.

“Hopes, dreams, lists about codes and a Jolly Rancher does not make a substantial step… nor does passing Pop-Tarts cell-to-cell,” he said.

Williams was referencing various elements of the recovered journal that prosecutors had tried to paint as sufficient evidence to convict. The journal had included entries from Williams about plans to escape, how to stay at large afterward and how to communicate with people outside of the jail using a code.

After deliberating for roughly 90 minutes , the jury took Williams’ side in that argument.

Williams hints at corruption: ‘I believe in principle’

During his short closing argument, Williams drew a sharp distinction between the escape count, which he made little effort to defend — e ven going so far as to admit he escaped — and the attempt count.

Williams, who faces much more serious charges related to child pornography production in a trial scheduled to begin Aug. 27, told jurors why he “put so much effort into this one relatively petty charge.”

That comment came after Williams began to repeat assertions and hints that he has somehow been the victim of retaliation for helping expose alleged corruption in the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD). That claim is also at the root of a civil lawsuit filed a year ago against the City of Johnson City on behalf of multiple alleged rape victims of Williams.

The lawsuit claims the JCPD essentially enabled Williams to conduct a sex trafficking operation — allegedly drugging and raping dozens of women — when he lived in a downtown Johnson City apartment. It accuses police of looking the other way, and in some cases benefiting financially for doing so. Johnson City has denied all claims in the suit, which is currently scheduled to go to trial in the spring of 2025.

Williams made several efforts during the trial to raise the issue of corruption, but the topic had been ruled inadmissible before the trial, and each time he was shut down before saying much. The same thing happened as he began approaching the subject during closing arguments, which court procedure requires to center around the case being tried.

“I’ve been singled out for a reason,” Williams said, referencing the fact that he was even charged with attempted escape at a jail less than 10 miles from Johnson City. “Mr. Bowman is probably sitting on the edge of his seat waiting to pounce (on the inadmissible comments).”

In fact, prosecutors had offered Williams a plea deal in which they would have dropped the attempted escape count. He rejected it based on their condition that he not be allowed to access any investigative materials from either case, including those normally subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

He didn’t get far, but said that his efforts to fight a charge the state had offered to drop came “because I believe in principle.”

While several federal civil cases are pending against Johnson City that relate to Williams, the alleged victims’ case has revealed that at least at one point, the U.S. government had begun investigating allegations of public corruption at the JCPD. The status of that investigation, including whether it has concluded, has not been made public.

Williams made little effort to defend his second charge .

The trial was the first of at least three federal cases against Williams, with the most severe being three separate counts of inducing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography . Williams also faces multiple state counts of rape and sexual assault on children in Washington County and is suspected of drugging and raping dozens of rapes of adult women and filming and photographing those assaults , when he lived in downtown Johnson City.

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