Chilling details of the murder of transwoman Diamond Williams were released this week during a preliminary hearing of her accused killer.
Charles N. Sargent, 45, told police he killed Williams in self-defense, after she demanded a prearranged payment of $40 for performing oral sex on him.
Sargent claims he declined to pay because he didn’t realize Williams had male anatomy when she “sucked me off.”
When Williams continued to push the issue and threatened him with a knife, he grabbed it from her and killed her, Sargent claims.
Sargent, looking gaunt in a brown suit, didn’t testify during his Oct. 8 preliminary hearing.
But an 18-page statement containing those details that he allegedly gave to police shortly after his arrest was entered into evidence.
Sargent told Detective Paul Guercio he met Williams during the early-morning hours of July 13, 2013, on Old York Road near Erie Avenue after an evening of consuming alcohol and cocaine.
Sargent said he invited Williams to his Strawberry Mansion residence, and she agreed to go.
In the statement, both Sargent and Guercio continually refer to Williams as a male.
“[After oral sex] we started groping and I felt something,” Sargent told Guercio. “I said, ‘You gotta get the fuck out.’ He [sic] said, ‘You better pay me my money.’ I said ‘no.’ And then we started tussling. I was trying to push him [sic] out of the house. He [sic] pulled out a razor knife and started slashing at me. I grabbed his [sic] hand and put him [sic] in a hand-bar lock. When I did that, I think the knife cut him [sic] on his neck. When I tried to pull the knife out of his [sic] hand, he [sic] fell down on the ground. I was able to get the knife out of his [sic] hand. He [sic] was on the ground and I kicked him [sic] a couple of times out of anger. I didn’t realize he was cut.”
Next, Sargent said he went down to the basement to get a screwdriver.
“I thought he [sic] was going to get up. I ran downstairs and grabbed a screwdriver. When I went back upstairs, he [sic] was trying to get up. I think I stabbed him [sic]. I stood back and made sure he [sic] really wasn’t getting up.”
Then, Sargent said, he wrapped Williams’ body in sheets.
“I was scared and paranoid and I was wondering what I was going to do with it,” Sargent said.
So he dragged Williams’ body down to the basement, and “chopped it up,” Sargent said.
Sargent used a knife and a hatchet to dismember Williams’ body, before placing her body parts in six to eight heavy-duty trash bags.
Two days later, he made several trips on foot to a nearby vacant lot, where he cut open the bags and deposited Williams’ body parts, he said.
Also during the hearing, Sargent’s then-fiance, Veronica Johnson, testified that she returned home from work around 8 a.m. July 13, 2013, and noticed that Sargent was acting strangely.
He was nude, had blood on him, and appeared to be “agitated,” she said.
She said Sargent pulled something wrapped in sheets from the second floor down to the basement door. Later she heard “bangs” emanating from the basement.
It remains unclear why Johnson didn’t immediately call police.
Instead, Sargent wasn’t arrested until six days later, when Johnson’s son, Lamar, called police.
Assistant District Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur said Johnson has cooperated with authorities and hasn’t been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Sargent told Guercio that Johnson wasn’t involved in Williams’ death.
“She was more afraid of me, of what I could possibly do to her. I regret what I did that day. I had to defend myself. But I made some bad decisions after that. I felt my life was in danger when he [sic] pulled out that blade and cut my arm. I felt that it was do or die.”
Defense attorney J. Michael Farrell argued that Sargent doesn’t appear to be mentally competent to stand trial.
But Municipal Judge David C. Shuter held Sargent on all charges: first-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime and abuse of corpse.
Sargent’s arraignment is scheduled for 11 a.m. Oct. 29 in Courtroom 1104 of the Criminal Justice Center, 1301 Filbert Street.
Several LGBTs attended the hearing to show support for Williams, who was 30 when she was killed.
“Diamond was a good girl,” said Naiymah Sanchez, a friend. “She had her faults, like everyone else. But there’s no excuse for [Sargent’s] behavior. I want him to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. What happened is inexcusable.”