BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE — A Bradford County jury convicted a Starke man for the July 2020 murder of 19-year-old Blake Reed Williams. The shooting took place on Old Lawtey Road near State Road 16.
Marcus Tereual Whitfield, 33, was found guilty of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for the July 10 killing.
Starke police Lt. Michael Rooney wrote in a warrant affidavit that after arriving on the scene of the shooting, around 9:45 p.m., he found two, 9mm shell casings near the victim.
“It should be noted that while at the scene, numerous people were yelling at law enforcement that Marcus Whitfield shot Williams,” wrote Rooney.
Rooney added that security cameras from the Church of God by Faith captured the shooting on video.
“At approximately (9:28 p.m.), according to the time stamp, two subjects can be seen walking south on Old Lawtey Road,” Rooney wrote. “You see a flash consistent with a muzzle flash and observe the one subject fall. I then observed the other subject, believed to be the shooter, run west through the grassy area fleeing the scene,”
Rooney wrote that after midnight, he interviewed the 911 caller that first reported the shooting. The caller said that while driving south on Old Lawtey Road, he observed a person laying on the ground. The man said he stopped to investigate and realized the victim was his friend Blake Williams and that Williams had been shot in the head.
“(The caller) was asked if he knew why anyone would want to hurt Williams,” Rooney wrote, “and he stated that ‘Pete’, who he did not know his real name ordered a hit on Williams. (The caller) stated that the word going around the neighborhood was that Williams had stolen some money from ‘Pete’ and that Marcus Whitfield is supposedly the shooter.”
Rooney wrote he later interviewed the victim’s girlfriend and cousin, who both corroborated the caller’s claims.
The girlfriend identified ‘Pete’ as Wilson and told Rooney Wilson believed Williams stole a large amount of cash from him.
The girlfriend added that Williams told her that two days before the shooting, Whitfield tried to stab Williams.
“(The girlfriend) stated that Williams wrote it off due to his belief that Whitfield was under the influence of narcotics at the time,” wrote Rooney.
The lieutenant also wrote that he recovered a black Motorola cellular phone near the victim.
A detective with the Clay County Sheriff’s office was able to turn on the device.
“The home screen image that I observed is an image of Marcus Whitfield that is the same image of the Facebook account ‘Polo Pressley’ which belongs to Marcus Whitfield,” he wrote.
Wilson is awaiting trial for conspiracy to commit murder. At press time a pre-trial conference was scheduled for Wilson on March 2.
