JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man who pleaded guilty to a 2022 attack on a woman at an Arlington gas station was sentenced Friday to 12 months in jail on one count of felony battery.
Kevin Williamson faced a maximum of five years in prison for the third-degree felony charge, which was upgraded from a misdemeanor battery charge after a review of facts and Williamson’s criminal history, which includes a conviction for raping a child in 1990.
Video from inside a convenience store on University Boulevard shows Williamson’s altercation with Rayme McCoy on May 16, 2022.
The judge reviewed that video and listened to witnesses Friday, including testimony from a trembling McCoy.
“He was just so hostile, it made me uncomfortable,” McCoy said on the stand. McCoy said Williamson was angry and arguing with a man outside the store before the attack occurred.
When Williamson entered the store, he got his beer, and stood next to McCoy in line, prompting her to ask for some space -- that’s when they started arguing.
“She told me I wasn’t going to make it out of the parking lot,” Williamson said.
While addressing the conversation with the person outside the gas station, Williamson testified it was not an argument and that McCoy apparently thought it was something racial, but according to Williamson, he and the other individual were just joking.
“At some point, did she knock the beer that you were trying to purchase into you?” Defense Attorney Morgan Lodes asked Williamson. “Yeah, it hit my side and went down my leg and it cut the tip of my bone in my toe, and it just bloodied my toenail,” he said.
Williamson said these events set him off and are the reasons why he was led to hit her.
The State pointed out that Williamson is a 6-foot 216-pound man testifying to have been frightened by McCoy.
After you hit her one time would you admit that there was no more threat to you of bodily harm to Ms. McCoy at all?” State Attorney Octavius Holliday asked Williamson.
“Yes,” he replied. “I swung at her and missed constantly. I’m an old man. I swung at her and missed constantly and then she turned into one of my punches, and got his on the side of her face.”
In McCoy’s testimony, she said Williamson did not react in pain to the beers falling on him. Instead, she said, he immediately started punching her in the face.
“Okay, you heard his testimony earlier that he hit you. He believes one time and hit your hair after that,” Holliday said to McCoy.
“My hair was in a bun. So, there is no way he could’ve hit my hair, and it was multiple times that I was hit. And the first hit definitely connected,” McCoy said.
McCoy suffered a popped blood vessel, a black eye and bruises from the punches to her face. She told the court she is still traumatized.
“I don’t feel comfortable going anywhere,” McCoy said. “That’s the closest, at one point, the closest gas station to my house. I could have zero miles and I’m not going to that gas station. It’s just scary.”
Lodes expressed concerns about his health issues going unaddressed while in jail and also said his criminal record doesn’t suggest he goes off and gets into fights with people often.
Williamson’s defense attorney also told the judge he came to court to take accountability for his actions. She said he regrets what he did and believes the video clearly shows McCoy was also angry in the situation.
His defense attorney asked the judge to sentence him to probation without jail time.
McCoy’s attorney requested that the State Attorney’s Office prosecute the case as a hate crime, but the SAO declined because of McCoy’s actions just before the attack and because it said it didn’t have evidence that McCoy was “individually targeted” because of her race.
Williamson’s sentence also includes 24 months of probation and requirements that he undergo anger management courses and complete 50 hours of community service.
Attack caught on video
McCoy shared the store surveillance video of the attack with News4JAX. It shows Williamson punching her at least 10 times before leaving the store.
Duval County court documents also provided more details about the attack, which followed a brief exchange between McCoy and Williamson.
RELATED: Court documents detail moments leading up to Arlington gas station attack
McCoy told News4JAX that she walked into the gas station near her home and was followed by an older white man who was already involved in an argument with someone outside.
McCoy said the man was “ranting and raving” and using “racist” language and that at one point, the man walked toward the counter where McCoy was standing and she asked him to back up. That’s when the man said he had a gun in his car, McCoy said.
Things got heated and McCoy hit some beer cans off a freezer. Williamson said the cans hit him, setting him off.
The video shared with News4JAX, which does not contain audio of the exchange, was also posted on social media and shared thousands of times.
(Warning: The video contains images that some might find disturbing.)
Details surrounding attack
News4JAX later obtained the unredacted arrest report that shows Williamson’s spontaneous utterance to police was, “Did you watch the whole video? She hit me first.”
Williamson said that the woman attacked him and stated that he “was in a Black town and asked what else was he supposed to do,” according to the report.
Williamson said the woman was screaming at him, “stating that he was racist because of how he spoke to an ‘Iranian gentlemen’ outside,” according to the report.
Williamson said the woman knocked several canned items off the counter, hitting him in the side and foot, and he stated, “That is what set him off,” according to the report.
He said that he then struck her three times with an open hand on the side of her head and told police that he did not make any racial statements toward the woman, the report said.
News4JAX also obtained the arrest warrant, which contains reference to another racial comment.
When Williamson came into the store to buy beers, the woman, after hearing his comments to the man outside, asked him to back away from her because he was standing too close, the warrant said.
Williamson said words to the effect about her being “those people,” and told her he had a gun in his car and to not mess with him, according to the warrant.
The woman yelled at Williamson that if he grabbed his gun or hit her, she would have someone come to the gas station to protect her, the warrant shows.
They started to argue, according to the warrant, and at one point, Williamson “would not back away,” so the woman slapped a can of beer onto the ground. Williamson then “immediately started punching” her in the face several times and fled the store.
Records show Williamson has been a registered sex offender for over 30 years and had a repeat domestic violence injunction filed against him that was later dismissed. There were two aggravated assault charges, one of which was with a deadly weapon, and both were dropped, court records show.