A Maplewood man's savage hammer attack on his mother last winter has earned him 20 years in prison.
David Edward Williams Jr. took his mother hostage in her Woodbury house the evening of Jan. 21 and struck her in the head several times before taping her to a chair.
Then he texted his father with her phone, luring him to the house, before threatening both parents with a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, according to the criminal complaint.
"The facts are just horrid," said Fred Fink, the criminal division chief in the Washington County attorney's office.
Williams, 23, was sentenced last week in Washington County District Court on a conviction of first-degree premeditated attempted murder. A second charge, second-degree firearm assault with a dangerous weapon, was dismissed.
Judge Mary Hannon gave Williams credit for 305 days served in the county jail, and ordered $13,662 in restitution from his wages at St. Cloud state prison.
Williams, who has a bipolar condition, had stopped taking his medications and was drinking alcohol and taking drugs when the attack occurred, according to the complaint. He was angry at his parents for having medicated him as a child, the complaint said.
As his mother pleaded, "Please don't hurt me," Williams closed all the blinds and opened a large black bag that contained a shotgun, baseball bat, knife and hatchet.
