Pennsylvania Woman with ‘Bad Temper’ Fatally Shot Mother’s Fiancé — But Insists She's Not a 'Monster'
![williams](https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/480x251/williams-1641239164294.jpg 480w, https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/640x335/williams-1641239164294.jpg 640w, https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/768x402/williams-1641239164294.jpg 768w, https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/1024x536/williams-1641239164294.jpg 1024w, https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/1280x670/williams-1641239164294.jpg 1280w, https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/1440x753/williams-1641239164294.jpg 1440w, https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/1600x837/williams-1641239164294.jpg 1600w, https://media.frontpagedetectives.com/brand-img/Ip2Mr9kPn/2160x1130/williams-1641239164294.jpg 2160w)
A woman accused of fatally shooting her mother’s fiancé on New Year’s Eve three years ago claimed she was just trying to protect her mother.
Around 8:30 p.m. Dec. 31, 2021, police responded to a Lower Merion apartment building in connection to a verbal dispute between Joi Furman and Adrionne Reaves, the Delco Times reported.
The pair agreed to keep apart that evening and officers left.
According to law enforcement officials, Reaves called his daughter to pick him up in the area but he returned to the apartment building’s parking lot to look for keys he misplaced.
Surveillance video police recovered shows Reaves in the apartment building lobby with his fiancée, and two other people just before 10 p.m.
In the footage, Reaves collapses and a short time later, police alleged, his fiancée’s daughter, 24-year-old Samiyah Williams of Philadelphia, wearing all black with a hoodie pulled over her head, exits the building’s lobby, the Delco Times reported
Responding officers found Reaves dead from a gunshot wound to the head, WCAU reported.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by the Delco Times, Joi Furmam allegedly said her daughter, Williams, was her fiancé's killer. The document claims Furman also made several statements while in transit to the Lower Merion police station: “I’m going to lose two people,” “God, my child has a bad temper,” and “I told her don’t bring that here.”
Williams could have faced charges of first-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime, but she later pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, The Mercury reported.
The defense claimed Williams carried out the crime — defined as a slaying committed with malice or hardness of heart or cruelty — because her mother was involved in an ongoing domestic situation and she was just trying to protect her, according to the outlet.
The defendant, now 26, recently received a sentence of 12½ to 25 years in the State Correctional Institution at Muncy.
At her sentencing hearing, Williams apologized for killing Reaves. “This is an unfortunate situation for both families," she said. "I’m not the monster that they painted me to be. The situation weighs heavy on my heart every day.”
Become a Front Page Detective
Sign up to receive breaking
Front Page Detectives
news and exclusive investigations.