JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Brianna Williams has been under arrest for 10 days, but Thursday was the first time she was put in a jail cell. She’ll be closely monitored following her suicide attempt last week, according to law enforcement sources.
First Coast News learned that Alan Chipperfield, a senior attorney with the public defender’s office, has been assigned to represent Williams.
Charlie Cofer, the Public Defender of Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit, says Chipperfield leads their homicide and death penalty unit. He says Chipperfield has a long history of working high profile cases.
"Alan is respected and known throughout the state for handling cases, many cases," said Cofer.
Cofer says his office met with Williams while she was in the hospital after her overdose last week, the same day she was arrested and the same day law enforcement announced they discovered human remains in Demopolis, Alabama, near Williams' hometown.
Cofer says they always advise their clients to not say anything about the case without them present. When JSO had announced that Williams' was no longer "cooperating", he says that indicates she asked for an attorney, which is in her right.
"There are still a lot of unknowns right now," said Cofer. "Normally on a homicide case, if it’s a homicide case, we have two attorneys on each case."
In this case, he expects a junior attorney from the public defender's office will team up with Chipperfield. However, if it turns into a death penalty case then he will assign another senior attorney. That's something they could know relatively soon because, as required by law, the state must give a written notice of its intent to seek the death penalty within 45 days from the date of arraignment in court.
Cofer says it’s important to remember that the charges Williams is facing now, of child neglect and lying to police, only supported her arrest and those charges could change.
"It's the State Attorney’s Office that decides on the formal charges."
Those formal charges could take days or weeks, depending on sufficient evidence, or the lack thereof, in the investigation. Cofer says it will come down to what they discover with the human remains found in Alabama. They are still awaiting DNA results.
Until then, a former investigator for the public defender’s office tells First Coast News that Williams is most likely on suicide watch in the jail, which means she would be in a jail cell alone, near the guards' station. The former investigator says this would be standard protocol following her suicide attempt last week. That would also mean that she is given little to nothing in her cell, to avoid any chance of her harming herself. She would be checked on around the clock since she is now a liability of JSO; she is their responsibility so they want to ensure her well-being.
JSO says her red jumpsuit in her mug shot is from her medical transport from the UF Health to the jail, but that color can also indicate an inmate is at high risk of self harm.
Williams has a court date on Dec. 4 at the Duval County Courthouse, when she could enter a plea if the State Attorney's Office files formal charges by that date. Cofer expects her to be able to make that hearing.