DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A woman acquitted in the killing of a local mother of 10 has been released from jail.
Terri Williams, 36, walked out of the DeKalb County Jail Monday night after two years there.
Only Channel 2 Action News was there and spoke to Williams about her release.
“I was like finally, finally, finally,” she told Channel 2’s Tom Jones of hearing the not guilty verdicts.
Williams was arrested after she told police she shot and killed Charlise Brooks in 2013 outside the Brickhouse restaurant on Bouldercrest Drive in East Atlanta.
Police said the two were involved in a verbal fight before gunshots Oct. 8, 2013. They said the suspect left the scene, and that the two knew each other prior to the fatal shooting.
Williams later told police she was defending herself after Brooks pulled out a gun.
Prosecutors asserted the gun never left Brooks' car.
It was a "Matlock" moment when defense attorney Scott Smith blew up a picture of the weapon and found something interesting.
“Right there on the revolver you see the blood,” Smith said in court.
Smith told the jury it was Brooks’ blood.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation never tested it. Prosecutors said it did not help that their star witness first said she never saw the gun, and then admitted to handling after doing CPR on Brooks.
“It didn’t’ make sense because there was no blood in the car,” Smith said.
The jury acquitted Williams and she gets to go home.
“I mean, it's shocking to me. I'm still in shock, really, but I been in here for 21 months,” Williams said.