Tuscaloosa Man Found Guilty Of Manslaughter In 2019 Monnish Park Shooting

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A Tuscaloosa County jury on Wednesday found a man guilty of provocation manslaughter in the 2019 shooting death of his cousin in Monnish Park.

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Robert Mitchell Williams was first charged with murder in November 2019 after 36-year-old Rayshard Richey was shot multiple times and later died from his injuries.

Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigators at the time said it was believed the argument that led to the fatal shooting was over money owed between them.

Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Allen May presided over the trial this week, with Tuscaloosa defense attorney Stuart Albea representing Williams.

After the verdict was handed down Wednesday, Albea told Patch that at the time of the shooting, Williams was homeless and living in Monnish Park, where he slept in front of a bathroom door.

He then explained that Richey and his girlfriend would regularly come get money from Williams, who subsided off of a disability check.

Albea said the night of the shooting, Richey demanded money and Williams gave him $200 in cash that turned out to be counterfeit. He then pointed out that much of the incident was caught on video.

"I don't know if [Williams] knew if they were counterfeit or not but [Williams] walks away from the car and Rayshard is like 'you gave me fake money, you disrespected me,' so [Williams] goes back and gets his little bit of money out and Rayshard snatches all of it."

He then said Richey exited the vehicle and got into a "fighting stance," before Williams pulled his gun and fired twice, missing Richey with both shots.

As he is running away from Williams, Albea said, Richey fell to the ground.

Testimony then revealed that Williams stood over Richey and shot him.

When asked what he thought convinced the jury to convict his client of manslaughter as opposed to the initial murder charge, Albea said "if [Richey] had just snatched the money and left, none of this would have happened."

“I want to thank the men and women of the jury in this case," Albea said. "They listened to the evidence carefully and did the hard work. It’s not always easy for 12 citizens to stop government overreach, but in this case, the jury agreed with us: while the loss of life is tragic and our deepest sympathies go out to the victim’s family, the facts of this case always constituted manslaughter and should have been charged as such. I also want to thank my co-counsel John Sutton. His hard work helped bring about justice for our client and justice for the victim.”

Williams is set for sentencing on June 18.

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