2 psychologists find man arrested in Ryan Rogers' fatal stabbing competent to stand trial

WEST PALM BEACH — Two psychologists have found Semmie Williams competent to stand trial in the stabbing death of 14-year-old Ryan Rogers, who left his Palm Beach Gardens home on Nov. 15 to take a bicycle ride and never returned.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Charles Burton, who has reviewed the reports, announced the findings during a brief hearing on Wednesday.

Burton, who presides over the court’s mental health division, said he will hold a hearing in the next several weeks so the therapists can explain their findings under questioning from prosecutors and Williams’ lawyers.

The reports weren’t publicly available Wednesday, and psychologist Adam White, who examined Williams along with psychologist Stephen Alexander, said he was prohibited from discussing his findings without a court order.

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Burton’s short summary of the mental health experts’ conclusions is at odds with claims by Williams’ defense attorneys and court records from the 39-year-old drifter’s violent past.

Since Williams was arrested in December, days after Rogers' body was found in a grassy area near the Interstate 95 overpass on Central Boulevard, Williams' mental health has been in question.

In court papers, Assistant Public Defender Scott Pribble said Wiliams suffers from “long-standing and persistent mental illness” and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

When Pribble asked that two mental health experts be appointed to examine Williams, he voiced confidence that his client would be found incompetent to stand trial.

“Because of his severe mental illness, he appears unable to testify relevantly, to disclose to counsel facts pertinent to the proceedings at issue, or to otherwise meaningfully participate in and aid counsel,” Pribble wrote in early February.

Noting that prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty, Pribble said it was critical to determine if Williams was capable of participating in his defense.

At the time, Williams was being housed in the mental health unit of the county jail and was receiving psychiatric treatment, he said.

Pribble, who unsuccessfully sought a gag order to prohibit anyone involved from talking about the case, has declined comment, as have state prosecutors.

Defense attorneys said it is likely Pribble will challenge the findings of the two psychologists and could ask Burton to appoint another expert to examine Williams.

Further, they said, even if Burton finds that Williams is competent to stand trial, he can still use an insanity defense.

“Competency to stand trial doesn’t mean you’re not crazy,” said defense attorney Fred Susaneck, who is not involved in the case. “It just means you can assist your counsel and help in your defense.”

A person’s mental state can change, said Donna Levine, who is married to Susaneck and is also a criminal defense attorney. Even if Williams has managed to tame his demons since he’s been in jail, it doesn’t mean he was sane at the time of Roger’s death, she said.

“It’s a very fluid situation, and your competency to stand trial can change,” Susaneck said, recalling clients who were cycled in and out of psychiatric hospitals before they were brought to trial. “Competency is a fixed moment in time.”

There is ample evidence that Williams has long struggled with mental illness. His mother got a restraining order against him in 2005 after he beat her and later threatened to kill her.

He also spent two years in a Georgia psychiatric hospital after he was declared incompetent to stand trial in connection with a 2016 unprovoked attack on an elderly man on a street near Atlanta.

The treatment apparently worked. At a 2018 hearing, Williams testified that he understood the court proceedings. He pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault against a person over 65 after he was promised he wouldn’t be sent to jail.

But rather than letting him go, a Fulton County judge ordered Williams to enter a residential program designed to treat people with "severe and persistent mental illness.” He left the Georgia facility in 2020, records show.

Videos that Williams posted on YouTube showed he wandered the country. The posts, which were taken down after he was arrested in Rogers' death, chronicle persistent beliefs that he was being threatened, persecuted, sexually assaulted and stalked as part of an wide-ranging conspiracy.

A video he posted on the day of the stabbing was typical. He complained about being watched by police.

“They put implants all over my body, in my eyes. They can see through my eyes," he said in the video.

The day after the teen was killed, he posted a chilling video. "Somebody attacked me last night," he said. "They had people ride past me on bikes, and I've been getting physically assaulted."

Palm Beach Gardens police said information they gathered from surveillance-camera video and cellphone records showed that Rogers was riding his bicycle south on Central Boulevard at about 7:30 p.m. At about the same time, Williams was walking north on the same sidewalk.

If Burton decides Williams is competent, the case would be returned to Circuit Judge Kirk Volker. Volker has said a trial is likely at least two years away.

jmusgrave@pbpost.com