MACON, Ga. — Bibb County deputies are still looking for missing murder suspect Christian Williams. He didn't show up in court on Monday. His lawyer shared a video that suggested he was kidnapped.
Williams has been out of jail on a $100,000 bond since January. He was ordered to wear an ankle monitor and stay under house arrest.
Macon District Attorney Anita Howard told 13WMAZ, Williams was set to go to trial Monday for murder in the 2021 shooting of Gregory Watkins. He faces up to life in prison and additional time for aggravated assault.
Last week, prosecutors filed a motion to revoke his bond and send him back to jail.
“It is sort of suspicious that a person gets kidnapped under surveillance cameras on the day that they were supposed to appear in court,” Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said.
Video released from the District Attorney’s office Monday seems to show two men dragging Williams from his yard. Davis and Howard say the alleged kidnapping happened around 11:35 p.m. Sunday night.
By 4:33 a.m. Monday, authorities say there's no trace of the monitor.
Howard says, there were “some indications” the monitor was tampered with before the alleged kidnapping. She says that's based off of reports from Anytime Bail, the bond service in charge of tracking his ankle monitor.
“We don't know if the monitor is still on his body or either he's taken it off and destroyed it,” Davis said. The Sheriff added it’s not impossible to break off an ankle monitor but it’s difficult.
Howard and Davis say authorities didn't learn about the alleged kidnapping until Williams’ defense lawyer notified an assistant district attorney in court Monday at roughly 9:20 a.m. The lawyer shared the 16-second surveillance video to the District Attorney.
“So at no time did the monitoring company ever call,” Davis said.
Anytime Bail Bonding is the bond service in charge of tracking Williams’ monitor.
This is the second allegation in a week that Anytime Bail was not tracking suspects.
13WMAZ reported Wednesday that the service is suspended for 90 days from tracking any new suspects. The Sheriff and District Attorney say Anytime failed to track other suspects--including murder suspect Keymarion Marion who was involved in a shooting last month and died from his injuries.
Raising even more red flags for authorities about Williams’ disappearance, the DA's office filed a motion last Thursday to revoke his bond on Monday. The District Attorney received reports Wednesday that showed Williams violated his house arrest.
“If you read this monitoring report, I will say there were countless indications that he probably was not doing as you should have been,” Davis said, flipping through the documents.
“Do you believe this was staged?,” 13WMAZ’s Ashlyn Webb asked.
“Well that is still under investigation and so I want to make sure that we make an informed decision,” Howard said.
“I'm not gonna speculate on that, other than to say that it's unusual and that it does raise questions,” Davis said.
Sheriff Davis says there have been no ransom demands in Williams' alleged kidnapping.
He says because of the video, they're still investigating this as a kidnapping case although both Davis and Howard aren’t sure Williams was actually kidnapped or on the run.
So why was Williams granted bond in the first place?
DA Howard says her office opposed bond twice.
She says he's dangerous and should not be on the streets.
Judge David Mincey denied the first request in May 2021, according to a bond hearing transcript.
The second request was approved by Judge Connie Williford in December that same year, according to the order.
She told 13WMAZ by phone Tuesday that she approved because she was told by the DA's office and the defense that Williams had no prior felony convictions.
She added that he was from Bibb County and had family that lived here. She says she'll provide more information Wednesday once she has the full transcript from the bond hearing.