Killer of Teen, Fetus Sentenced

Man Who Beat Pregnant Girlfriend With Bat to Serve 48 Years

In December, Natasha Washington, the sister of murder victim Cheri Washington, and her mother, Joanna, discuss the conviction of Carlos D. Williams. "I feel he should have gotten more time," Joanna Williams said yesterday. (By Dylan Moore -- Potomac News Via Associated Press)

There would be no closure, Joanna Washington said yesterday as she left a Prince William County courthouse, sobbing.

"It'll never be over," she said.

Carlos D. Williams, the man who killed her pregnant daughter and her fetus by swinging a baseball bat into her stomach and stomping on her naked body with boots will not get life in prison. Instead, he will serve 48 years of a 70-year sentence, with the remaining 22 years suspended, Circuit Judge Richard B. Potter decided.

"I feel he should have gotten more time," Washington said, methodically wiping tears from her face. "If he hurt my child, he can get out and hurt someone else's kid."

Williams, 27, a former teacher, killed Cheri Washington, 17, a senior at C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge, after he found out that she was pregnant. Witnesses testified that he tied her wrists and ankles with duct tape, pounded her stomach with a baseball bat and stomped on her with boots.

A DNA test later showed that Williams was not the father of Washington's baby.

"This is such an unusual, such a horrible crime," Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert told the court yesterday. "This is a case that calls for life in prison."

There was no excuse -- not even a troubled past -- that could explain away the brutality, he added.

"He is what he is," Ebert said. "And I don't know if he'll ever be any better."

The defense, however, called for a lighter sentence, presenting Williams as having been dealt his own brutal blows since childhood.

"This is an individual who has walked through life, by and large, having to make his own way," his attorney, Tracey A. Lenox, said, adding that this was not a case in which it was appropriate to "throw away the key."

"This is an individual who has the potential for rehabilitation."