A criminal complaint was filed Tuesday in Meigs County Court, charging Williams with a single count of murder. Jackson, 83, was found strangled in the dining room of her Tuppers Plains subdivision home on Feb. 26.
A session of the Meigs County Grand Jury has been scheduled for April 1. While those proceedings are secret until indictments are returned, the grand jury will likely consider the Williams case and, perhaps, that of Williams’ co-defendant on lesser charges, James Lee Garnes.
Prosecuting Attorney Colleen S. Williams said Charles Williams is now in the North Central Regional Jail in Greenwood, W.Va., on a parole violation. He and Garnes, 39, Pomeroy, were charged with receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence last week. Garnes is in jail in lieu of a $50,000 cash bond.
Relatives first reported Jackson and her car missing on Feb. 23. Her car was recovered in Athens a week later, and the charges filed last week against Williams and Garnes related to its theft.
Jackson’s body was discovered in the dining room of her home in the Arbaugh Addition in Olive Township by sheriff’s deputies executing a search warrant in search of evidence relating to her whereabouts. An autopsy named strangulation, a stab wound and blunt trauma as the causes of death.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol cited Williams for failure to control and driving under suspension the day before deputies discovered Jackson’s body, and Williams never appeared on the charges. He was not driving Jackson’s vehicle, according to the citation filed in Meigs County Court.
“Murder is a special category felony in Ohio, and requires presentment to the grand jury,” Prosecutor Williams said. “Additional charges may be brought at that time.”
Once Williams is served copies of the complaint and warrant from Ohio, he may willingly return to Meigs County to answer the charge, Prosecutor Williams said.
“If he refuses to come back voluntarily, my office will immediately begin the process of obtaining a governor’s warrant to require he be brought back here.”
Prosecutor Williams acknowledged area law enforcement officers and agencies for work leading to the arrests, and her office staff.
“We are especially grateful to agents of Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation for the untold hours that they have put in, and continue to put in, as well as Sheriff Robert E. Beegle and his deputies, and all the other departments and agencies that have stepped up and helped out.”
“We had deputies from Washington County Sheriff Larry Minks’ office come down to help out the night the body was discovered, and, of course, it was the Athens Police Department that found her car,” Prosecutor Williams said.
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