JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A family member is coming to the defense of a woman at the center of a child's death investigation.
Brianna Williams is the mother of 5-year-old Taylor Rose Williams, who was found dead in an Alabama forest six days after her mother reported her missing. Williams hasn't been charged in the girl's death, but she's in jail charged with child neglect and lying to investigators. She pleaded not guilty to those charges in January at her first appearance.
Williams' relative, Harold Rogers, said he doesn't believe Williams belongs in jail. He said he used to live with Brianna for a few months while his sister helped raise her. His sister is Brianna's great-aunt. Rogers said he agrees with Williams' plea, saying she isn't guilty.
"Brianna, as far as I’m concerned, is a beautiful person and lovely person," Rogers said. "I still trust her even though this stuff happened. It might sound crazy, but I respond to how people treat me and I go by my own mind. I don’t care what I read or what I heard or whatever that’s just the way I am."
Tuesday, Williams faced a judge for a pretrial hearing. It was pushed until next month for her public defender to have more time to go over potential evidence against her. Some of that evidence includes thousands of photographs and surveillance video, Uber records, Match.com profiles and her Amazon order history.
She was noticeably thinner Tuesday than in pictures we've seen of her in the past. Williams was also wearing a red jumpsuit as she did in her first appearance in January. The red jumpsuit indicates she is considered at risk of self-harm or escape or requires medical transport. Williams was put into a medically-induced coma after she tried to commit suicide the day of her arrest.
"She inspired me as a nice person, a young lady," Rogers said. "She was always highly respectable, carried herself like a young lady and a queen that she was or is."
Rogers got emotional talking about what the past few months have been like, because, he said, this isn't the Williams he and his family know.
“[My sister] took that child in and tried to raise her and help her out and molded her and took her time and tried to raise her and even helped her out to become the queen of the high school [homecoming queen]," Rogers said. “How could a person so sweet kind and innocent end up in some trouble like this? It just doesn’t make sense at all."
Rogers said he wants to support Williams because she doesn’t have anyone to lean on right now.
"There are people on Facebook that already sentenced her to the death sentence because they said she killed her [daughter], but they don’t know Brianna," Rogers said.
Rogers said he hopes to come from Virginia to Williams' next court date, the pretrial hearing that was moved to March 3. Williams sits in jail facing a $1 million bond.