A Battleboro man is facing attempted murder charges after authorities say he fired a handgun into his estranged wife’s SUV while she was driving, then evaded capture for ten days before deputies intercepted him on a major interstate carrying a stolen 9mm handgun. Robert Earl Williams III, 34, was taken into custody without incident on Wednesday, August 26, following a vehicle stop on Interstate 87 east of Highway 540 in Wake County.
The case began on August 16, when the Nash County Sheriff’s Office responded to a disturbance and shots-fired report at 5845 N.C. 48 Highway in Battleboro, according to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators say Williams shot at Marhlycia Erinette Williams, his estranged spouse, while she was driving, and that bullets struck her vehicle. She was not injured in the shooting, according to the sheriff’s office. Court records reviewed by Fighting Crime News and Who’s Wanted identify the vehicle as a white Chevrolet SUV and place the shooting on the Rocky Mount portion of N.C. Highway 48.
Following the shooting, the Nash County Sheriff’s Office obtained warrants charging Williams with attempted murder and with discharging a firearm into a dwelling or moving vehicle. He was placed in the Nash County Detention Center once he was transported there and is being held on no bond. Williams, who resides at 6C Drew Hills Court in Battleboro, was scheduled for his first court appearance on Thursday.
Interstate Stop Ends in Additional Weapons Charges
Ten days after the Battleboro shooting, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office stopped Williams’s vehicle on I-87 near Highway 540, a corridor that links Raleigh to routes heading into Nash County within roughly a 45-minute drive, according to the Construction Equipment Guide. A search of the vehicle turned up a stolen 9mm handgun, prompting Wake County deputies to charge Williams with possession of a stolen firearm and carrying a concealed weapon…