ST. LOUIS, MO (October 15, 2024) — A jury last week found Eric Jordan Williams, 21, guilty of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon in the shooting death of 20-year-old Joyce Freeman on November 23, 2020, in the 3900 block of Minnesota Avenue near the border of the city’s Dutchtown and Marine Villa neighborhoods.

The day of the shooting, Freeman was preparing to go to a doctor’s appointment with her four-day-old son and her boyfriend, when a Nissan Sentra drove by and fired shots at their car. Freeman was in the driver’s seat and her boyfriend was putting the child in an infant seat in the back when the window shattered.

The victims tried to drive away from the area when the Nissan reappeared on Broadway. Two people were hanging out of the passenger-side windows and continued firing shots at the victims’ car. As Freeman began to pass out and lose vision, her boyfriend grabbed the steering wheel, pulled into a parking lot and called police. Freeman died a short time later at a local hospital. Her son and boyfriend were not injured in the shooting.

A witness positively identified Williams, who was 17 at the time, as one of the shooters. Williams was previously tried in April of this year, but the jury could not reach a verdict. A co-defendant in the case, Deyontez Huntley, 23, was acquitted on similar charges in March of this year. The third co-defendant, Steven Noah Washington, was convicted in November of 2022.

The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant Circuit Attorney Marlo Lamb, who is First Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in St. Francois County, and Assistant Circuit Attorney Dominic Cusumano.

“We hope that the family of Joyce Freeman, including her young son, will take some comfort in the justice represented by this verdict,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore. “Even so, we recognize that the loss of a young mother is a heavy burden for any family to endure.”



Williams is set to be sentenced in January of 2025.

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