By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
WARNING: The information in this story is taken from Atmore Police Department reports that include a graphic description of the crime allegedly committed by the suspect. These details might be disturbing or offensive to many readers.
Family members of 44-year-old James Williamson —arrested May 19 for following through on a vocal threat to permanently silence a constantly barking puppy — say the Atmore man had recently been released from a mental institution and had quit taking his prescribed medications.
Whatever the situation, Williamson remained behind bars as midweek approached, charged with one count of aggravated animal cruelty after he reportedly placed the puppy in a hot over and left it there until it died.
District Court Judge Eric Coale set bond at $15,000 in the torture and death of the animal. Despite the relatively low bond, Williamson remained in the ECDC Monday afternoon, May 26.
According to police reports, officers were sent around 12:30 p.m. to a residence in the 100 block of Cruitt Drive — a long and winding city thoroughfare that connects Jack Springs Road with North Main Street — in response to a report of an injured animal. They arrived to find “a badly burned, deceased Chihuahua puppy laying on the driveway.”
APD investigators were called to the scene and quickly determined that Williamson “intentionally placed the puppy in the oven due to what he felt was excessive barking.”
Witnesses told police of overhearing the 44-year-old man say during a family argument he was going to subject the tiny canine to such a punishment if it didn’t quit barking. The witness reported hearing a dog yelping in pain a short time after the threat was issued but didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.
Evidence found inside the house’s kitchen confirmed that the threat was carried out. Police found burned fur and other remnants of the puppy still in the oven, along with indications that a chair had been pushed against the oven door to prevent the animal from escaping its fiery fate.
Sgt. Darrell McMann, an APD investigator who described the case as “as bad as it gets,” said he only charged Williamson with aggravated animal cruelty — a Class C felony that could bring a 10-year prison sentence upon conviction — because he couldn’t find a more serious crime.
“That is the most serious charge I could charge him with,” said the APD investigator. “Believe me, I looked.”
The detective said there was nothing in Williamson’s criminal history to indicate he was capable of such an act, although police were familiar with some of his more erratic behavior in the past.
“No (there’s nothing violent in his past), but we have contacted him several times after he drank gasoline to get high,” McMann said.
Williamson, who is (or was at the time) wheelchair-bound, was also arrested by city police in 2021 after he hid several items under his leg and rolled his chair out of Dollar General on South Main Street without paying for the merchandise. He was caught across the street from the store, the stolen items still in his possession. He also had a small amount of synthetic cannabis (Spice) in his possession and was charged with felony drug possession.
Most who commented on the story on Atmore News Facebook page were horrified over the crime and had little or no sympathy for the man accused of committing it, no matter his mental health issues.