“This was one of the longest, most exhausting trials of my entire career,” Brian C.T. Jones told The News Courier following the Thursday, Feb. 20, guilty verdict of Reaford Buron Williams III — who was convicted of murder for the death of 19-year-old Troy Rashawn Howard in a 2019 drunk driving accident.

“We had six different experts testify at trial about one issue, and there was a pretty lengthy process of motions,” Jones said. “I couldn’t tell you how many motion hearings we had, but both sides were duking it out for the whole time. The defense lawyer’s closing was three and a half hours long, while mine was only 15 minutes. Every homicide case is emotional and very tragic, but in a case like this emotions were especially prevalent because it was so preventable.”

On March 20, 2019, Williams was driving his 2015 Dodge Ram 2500 Crew Cab 4X4 ST pickup truck while inebriated, speeding, texting and driving on the wrong side of I-565 when he collided head-on with the Harvest teen’s 2013 Ford Fusion. According to the official case summary from the 10-day long trial at the Limestone County Courthouse, Williams was leaving an adult exotic dance lounge in Madison when he struck Howard, who was leaving work at the Target Distribution Center in Huntsville at 2 a.m.

“This is the third instance in which the defendant (Williams) crashed while driving intoxicated,” Jones said. “The closer I get to 60, the more I think about how much time we have left. When you are 19, you don’t think of things like that because you have your whole life ahead of you. Unfortunately, because of the defendant’s choices that night, he has cheated Troy out of all of those great things that life has to offer. I have no doubt in my mind that justice was served.”

Jones noted that the 12-person jury only deliberated for two hours before coming to the guilty verdict, a sharp difference between the nearly two weeks spent in court. A verdict that Jones said was six years in the making for the Howard family.

“We had some very graphic testimonies from body camera footage, witnesses on the scene, first responders and EMS professionals,” Jones said. “The firefighters and police officers actually testified that they could smell the alcohol on the defendant after the accident. The fact that the defendant was chewing gum when talking to the officer, spit it out and then picked it back up off the ground and began chewing it again told me everything I needed to know. I am thankful that we got this resolved. I am thankful that the jury paid attention through everything that was thrown at them to find him guilty. I can only hope that this offers some kind of closure to the Howard family.”

Williams will be sentenced on May 8. Jones expressed his satisfaction with the verdict, stating that he was more than happy to have played a vital role in bringing some peace to the Howard family. However, he also acknowledged the challenges posed by his office’s inadequate funding, which contributed to the six year wait in bringing Williams to trial.

“I personally apologized to the family because it took so long to get to this moment,” Jones said. “We had so many hands involved in this trial, that while we were in court we had to close our office. Independent of all of the issues district attorneys are facing in the state with funding, our system is going to have to be better and move faster. That’s what we want to work on in 2025.”