Donald Eugune Williams, 33, accused of luring a child into his car and forcing her to engage in sexual activity has been convicted.
He was convicted on Monday, February 13.
Macon Judicial Circuit Attorney Anita R. Howard said that on Sept. 3, 2021, 33-year-old Donald Williams was driving his car when he approached a 14-year-old girl outside her school.
When Williams engaged with the 14-year-old, Howard said he claimed to be a pastor and offered to give her a ride home.
However, instead of taking her home, Williams drove to a dead-end road and assaulted her.
Soon after the sexual acts occurred, Howard said Williams drove to a balloon release to preach and offer a prayer for a family while the child remained in his car.
After several hours, he dropped her off near her home.
Howard said the child could give law enforcement multiple details of the events, locations where she was taken and descriptive information about Williams, including his business card with his picture.
Williams was a prior sex offender out of Houston County and was still on the sex offender registry but was no longer on probation at the time of the incident, according to Howard.
Donald also pleaded guilty to statutory rape and sexual battery of a child under the age of 16 in connection with the September 3, 2021, episode.
Prosecutors said that upon leaving the Peake Road campus in northwestern Bibb County, Williams drove the girl — who was not a student at the school but was there attending an event — to a secluded area and sexually assaulted her.
Williams, who in his role as a minister often officiated funerals for those without home churches, became a suspect after the victim in the case informed a family member.
Williams had given the victim his business card, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors last month filed notice that, had the case gone to trial, they intended to introduce evidence of a similar case involving Williams in Houston County in 2010.
He was sentenced to 45 years, with at least the first 20 in prison.
‘Individuals who hold themselves out as being in a position of trust with children and then betray that trust must and will be held accountable for their actions toward those most vulnerable in our communities,’ Howard said.
