Memphis signee Mikey Williams pleaded not guilty to numerous felony charges on Thursday in an El Cajon, Calif., court.
Williams, a five-star recruit, appeared virtually in court and pleaded not guilty to five counts of assault with a deadly weapon in connection to a shooting outside of his San Diego home on March 27. He also pleaded not guilty to a count of firing inside an occupied vehicle for allegedly shooting inside a car carrying five passengers following a “verbal argument about guests in the house being asked to leave,” according to the San Diego County sheriff’s department. The police’s incident report indicated that the car was hit by gunfire, but no one was hurt.
Williams did not make an in-person appearance in court because of “security reasons” and the “stressful” nature of the current situation, according to his attorney Troy P. Owens Jr.
“He’s [Mikey Williams] trying as an 18-year-old to process this,” Owens told KFMB-TV in San Diego on behalf of his client. “And he’s doing O.K. under the current situation.”
The 18-year-old was arrested at 3:30 p.m. local time on April 13 before being released on a $50,000 bail early the next day. If Williams is convicted on all charges, he faces up to 28 years in prison, according to deputy district attorney George Modlin.
Williams is expected to return to court for a preliminary hearing on June 29. He has five protective orders against the five passengers in the car and will not be allowed to carry firearms or ammunition based on the conditions of his release, according to The Commercial Appeal.
However, after Thursday’s hearing, Owens told reporters the allegations that Williams faces “are not an accurate reflection of what happened” during the altercation and that he was not knowledgeable about the relationship between his client and the car’s passengers, per The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Williams is a consensus top-50 player in the class of 2023. He committed to Memphis in November and is the Tigers’ top recruit heading into next season. He was born in San Diego and attended San Ysidro High School in the city as a freshman and senior, with a stint at Lake Norman Christian School (N.C.) in between.
