TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A man who admitted killing his son 17 years ago was sentenced to probation in exchange for saying where the toddler's body was buried — even though the remains were not found during a lengthy search.
Curtis Williams said he buried the clothed body of 2-year-old Curtis McCoy under 3 feet of dirt on a hilly, brush-filled area beneath an elevated portion of the New Jersey Turnpike in Jersey City. Searchers sifted through soil covering hundreds of square feet last month but failed to find the remains.
The plea deal — in which a hindering apprehension charge replaced murder counts that carried a life sentence upon conviction — remained in effect. On Friday, Judge Peter Vazquez sentenced Williams to five years of probation, the maximum allowed, prosecutor Debra Simon said.
Authorities believe Williams was telling the truth about where he buried McCoy's body because he passed a polygraph test.
People are also reading…
Simon said the plea deal came about because the case against Williams was weak — there were only two witnesses, and both may have had ulterior motives to testify against him — and prosecutors wanted to give McCoy's family closure.
"I didn't have a slam dunk of a case," Simon said Saturday. "If we go to trial for murder and we lose, and we ask him where the baby's body is, he would have laughed. And if we win, what motive would he have to tell us where the baby is?"
Williams, 40, initially was charged with the boy's 1989 murder in January 2006. At the time, he was serving a sentence for fraud for claiming McCoy as a dependent in a loan application. As part of the plea deal, that charge was also dropped.
Williams initially told Newark police that his son had gone missing while they were out shopping.
The boy's mother contacted police in 2004, around the 15th anniversary of her son's disappearance. Jersey City police eventually found evidence implicating Williams, which led to the murder charge.
Williams' lawyer, Jeffrey Jablonski, said the plea deal was the only leverage prosecutors had against Williams to get him to reveal where McCoy's body was buried.
"If Mr. Williams knew where the body was, that was his largest bargaining chip," Jablonski said Saturday. "I know that sounds terribly, terribly harsh, but that's the reality of the situation."
