Note: Lamont Montrell Wilson has been named as the suspect in a brand new lawsuit against the prison. However, he has yet to be charged with a crime.
In November of 2023, Daniel Williams’s lifeless body was found tied to a bed inside the Staton Correctional Facility medium-security open bay dormitory. He died shortly after. He had been tortured and raped for approximately 48-72 hours. Supposedly, no one notified any prison guard that the rape and torture was going on.
Williams was doing a shot prison sentence for 2nd-degree theft of property. This is a Class C felony involving either an item that has a value of $1,500 – $2,500 or a firearm, narcotics, or livestock. This carries a mandatory prison sentence of 366 days.
Williams was less than one week from being released when he was tortured and raped to death.
Afterward, the officials in Alabama censored as much as possible. No suspect name was given to the public. Finally, 13 months later, the family of Williams filed a lawsuit, naming Lamont Montrell Wilson, prisoner #255290, as the suspect. They say Williams was found tied to Wilson’s bed. Neither Wilson nor anyone else has ever been charged with a crime for the murder of Williams.
19th Judicial Circuit District Attorney CJ Robinson says he took a case against an unnamed suspect to a grand jury but failed to get an indictment due to “insufficient probable cause.” Robinson says the suspect can not be prosecuted because the witnesses refuse to cooperate.
The details in the lawsuit shed light on why government officials in Alabama seemed so desperate to censor information. Wilson was allegedly accused of nine other rapes at five other prisons since 2017. Some of these rapes involved stabbings. Wilson is also accused of other crimes inside Alabama prisons.
Yet, the officials at Staton Correctional Facility cleared to live in a medium-security open bay dormitory so he would have access to new victims. Staton is listed as 69.4% Black, 30.5% White or Latino, and 0.1% American Indian.
Click here to read the lawsuit.
