Standing in her orange jail garb, shackles on hands and feet, former Navy Chief Petty Officer Brianna Shontae Williams entered a guilty plea Thursday morning to the second-degree murder of her 5-year-old daughter in late 2019.
The plea was made the same day as a previously scheduled pretrial hearing on the 29-year-old's original charges of aggravated child abuse, child neglect and more stemming from the Nov. 12, 2019, discovery of Taylor Rose Williams' body in a shallow grave in Alabama.
Williams, who had served at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, gave her plea to Duval Circuit Judge Kevin Blazs as Assistant State Attorney Lauren Anderson and Assistant Public Defender Joshua Beard and others watched the lengthy case near its conclusion.
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