Assault case dismissed for now

Published 10:15 am Friday, March 11, 2022

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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

A motion to dismiss the case against Cally Shay Williams on assault first degree was dismissed without prejudice at a preliminary hearing on March 9.

Without prejudice means the charges can come up again at a later date.

C.J. Robinson, chief deputy district attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit, said the case will come before a grand jury at a later date, but the decision was made not to proceed at this time.

The charges stem from a Aug. 23, 2021 incident, where Williams was arrested for shooting Jessica Forsythe while Forsythe was trespassing on Williams’s property.

A Stand Your Ground hearing had been set for the case, but Forsythe did not show up to testify as the victim in the case.

“We were unable to locate her, and at this time we do not know if her no show was intentional or not,” Robinson said.

The District Attorney’s office had also reached out to Forsythe’s husband in an attempt to locate her.

This victim’s testimony is vital to holding the Stand Your Ground hearing to get information about what happened.

A Stand Your Ground hearing is typically held in a case when the person being charged was in a place they could legally be and is saying they acted in self-defense.