On June 3rd, a Walker County jury convicted Mark Anthony Williams of possessing massive
amounts of child sexual abuse material, after a three-day trial before Superior Court Judge Chris Arnt.
Williams, 68, was convicted on all 16 counts of sexual exploitation of children by possessing child
sexual abuse material.
The case originated from an unrelated investigation in Catoosa County, where the Catoosa
County Sheriff’s office received a tip that Brian Lawson was downloading child sexual abuse material.
When his electronics were searched, child sexual abuse material was located on his phone, as well as
conversations between Lawson and Williams in which they exchanged pictures and videos of children
and discussed their desires to abuse children. Most concerning to detectives were pictures of young
children in stores, which Williams had sent to Lawson.
Thereafter, Det. Clay Thompson of the Catoosa County Sheriff’s office was assigned the task of
locating Mark Williams. Through the investigation, it was determined that Williams was a resident of
Walker County and lived next to and worked at a local grocery store. After securing search warrants,
Catoosa County Detectives searched Williams’ home and found massive amounts of child sexual abuse
material. After seizing all the material from the home and taking it back to the sheriff’s office for further
inspection it was determined that: 418 DVDs were seized containing over 12,000 images and videos of
child sexual abuse material; 12 USB thumb drives were seized containing tens of thousands of images
and pictures of child; and a computer and several hard drives were seized and sent to the Department of
Homeland Security, which confirmed that said items contained over 266,000 pieces of child sexual
abuse material.
Furthermore, detectives discovered that one of the USB flash drives contained nude pictures of a
child, which Williams appeared to know. Additionally, a diary was located on the same flash drive,
written by Williams, in which he documented his molestation of a child beginning when the child was
seven years old. After his arrest, Williams was interviewed by Det. Thompson, where he admitted that
he had been collecting child pornography for over 20 years, admitted that he would take pictures of
children in the grocery store and other public places, and admitted that the child in the pictures was his
long-term boyfriend’s son, and admitted that he had molested the child in another state.
The case was presented to the jury by Senior Assistant District Attorney David Wolfe with the
assistance of Victim Witness Advocate Ashley Nicholson. ADA Wolfe presented evidence at the trial
showing the jury a very small sample of the types of child sexual abuse material located in Williams’
home, most of which consisted of material with infants, toddlers, and even bestiality. Furthermore,
pictures and videos of Williams molesting his partner’s son were presented, proving that the diary
located was a factual documentation of the abuse that Williams inflicted on the boy for over 5 years.
On June 3rd, after a three-day trial, the jury found Mark Anthony Williams guilty of all 16
counts of sexual exploitation of children. That same day, Judge Chris Arnt held a sentencing hearing for
Williams. Judge Arnt sentenced Williams to the maximum allowable sentence under Georgia law, 300
years to be served in prison with 20 years of sex offender probation thereafter.
From Acting District Attorney Deanna Reisman, “Prosecuting child predators, like Williams,
remains a top priority for our office. We thank Senior ADA Wolfe and our law enforcement partners for
their dedication to the pursuit of justice for the thousands of children, both known and unknown, who
were victimized by Williams.”