No reprieve for convicted Blaine child molester

By Steve Guntli

A Blaine man given a retrial in Whatcom County Superior Court had his hopes dashed after he was once again found guilty of sexually assaulting children.

Frederick James Williams, Jr., 50, was re-sentenced on December 11 to life without parole on 10 counts of sexual assaults against children. Williams was originally convicted in 2011, but the state court of appeals overturned the case because unrelated evidence from a previous rape conviction had been improperly entered into the record. The case was ordered back to Whatcom County for a retrial.

The first conviction involved a girl who was under 6 years old when she was molested by Williams in the early 1990s. He was found guilty of rape of a child in the first degree and ordered to receive sex offender treatment. He was terminated from the treatment program for failing to complete assignments. He registered for another treatment program but failed out of that one as well.

Williams was taken in by a relative in Blaine, and sexually assaulted two more young girls while living in the house. The girls were both younger than 13 at the time, and came forward in 2009. While he was being placed under arrest, Williams asked the police officers to shoot him, and then asked if he could have one of their guns to shoot himself.

Williams was initially charged with 14 counts of molestation and rape, but four of the charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Williams was convicted on the remaining 10, and sentenced to life without parole.

During the retrial, Williams attempted to represent himself, but recused himself after complaining of severe migraine headaches. His stand-by counsel, Thomas Fryer, represented Williams for the rest of the trial.

On October 30, after five hours of deliberation, the jury voted to convict Williams on four counts of first-degree child molestation, three counts of first-degree rape of a child, two counts of second-degree child molestation and one count of second-degree rape of a child. Judge Ira Uhrig handed down Williams’ sentence last week.

Earlier this year, a young man came forward, saying Williams had molested him as a teenager. He had been out of state during the original trial, but came forward after the retrial was granted. Jeffrey Sawyer, the prosecutor in both cases, filed the new charges, but was unsure if the case would go to trial, since Williams had already been given a life sentence.