Killer of Teen, Fetus Sentenced
Man Who Beat Pregnant Girlfriend With Bat to Serve 48 Years

By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 5, 2006

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."

Williams's uncle, Stephen Covington Sr., testified that his nephew had been born a healthy baby but entered the unstable world of an addict mother. Williams was tossed from relative to relative and spent time in foster care, he said. And before his sixth birthday, he watched his father shoot and wound his mother, he said.

"When he'd sleep, he'd toss and turn and wake up in cold sweats," Covington said, adding that Williams never talked about the shooting except to say "he would never forget it."

Covington's son, Stephen Covington Jr., was also convicted in the slaying of Cheri Washington. Eighteen years old at the time, he was a friend of Washington's and did nothing to stop the beatings, although he was in the Dale City home that day in January 2005, listening to the abuse and even handing over the bat. He was sentenced this January to serve 36 months.

"Everyone is struggling with this in their own way," the elder Covington said, adding that his youngest sons, ages 13 and 15, still don't understand what happened.

"They just tell me they have dreams," he said. "They ask what made him do it. And I can't give them an answer. I don't know."

Although there was evidence that Williams wanted to terminate the pregnancy, there was no proof that he intended to kill Washington. After the beating, Williams helped Washington get dressed and walked her out, ordering her to say she was "jumped" by a bunch of girls, according to court testimony. She was found by a motorist and taken to a hospital, where she and her 5- to 6-month-old fetus died the next day.

When asked yesterday whether he wanted to say anything, Williams turned to face Washington's family before his own.

"I would like to take this time to sincerely apologize to Cheri Washington's family, to my family and to the Commonwealth of Virginia," he said. "That's all I have to say."

The words were little consolation to Washington's family members, who left the courtroom in varying states of tearfulness.

"She was a loving girl, and now the only time I can visit her I have to go to her grave," Joanna Washington said.