Man accused of kidnapping, attempted sexual assault on a minor appears in court Friday

A man accused of kidnapping and attempted sexual assault of a minor appeared in court in Carson City Friday for his preliminary hearing.

Carson City Senior Judge John Tatro presided over the hearing of Kahlil Deshaun Williams, who is being accused of kidnapping, attempted sexual assault of a minor under 14, lewdness with a minor under 14, and false imprisonment.

Williams has been in custody since May 4 following an incident in which a minor child was allegedly taken by a stranger, later identified as Williams.

According to the arrest report, Williams was arrested following a report that a man matching Williams' description and driving a vehicle matching the description given by the victim had allegedly offered a minor child a dollar, took her in his car a few miles from her home and attempted to sexually assault her.

According to the child’s aunt, who testified during the preliminary hearing, her niece went to retrieve the school lunches from down the street, which she did every day, but when her niece didn’t return home after a few minutes her aunt began to look for her.

She said as she was looking, her niece appeared with the lunches and brought them inside. She said her niece was shaking and curled up into the fetal position on the couch and told her she was sorry she had taken a long time, and then proceeded to tell her aunt she had been taken by a man in a black car.

According to the aunt, her niece told her she had been waiting for the lunches when a man drove up in a black car and asked if she wanted a dollar. She nodded that she did, and she went closer to the car and he then pulled her into the vehicle. She said he drove her to a “tall building” and then parked.

She said he then got into the backseat with her and tried to pull her pants down, and she started screaming for him to take her home and held onto the tops of her pants. She told her aunt he got back into the driver’s seat and he drove her back.

She told her aunt the man then got out of the car and pulled her out of the backseat before driving away again.

William’s attorney argued that a (under 10-year-old, age redacted for privacy of the victim) child is not competent to stand trial and her testimony and the testimony of her family members should not be admitted, because it would be against William’s constitutional rights.

Prosecution argued there is no evidence to show that the child in question is not competent, and the objection was overruled.

The aunt said she had her niece walk her down to where it happened, and she went into a convenience store and asked if their cameras were recording. When they told her that they were, the aunt said she went outside and called 911.

The aunt testified that her niece described the man as being dark skinned with “stringy” hair, with a dollar sign tattooed on his face. She said he was wearing a white tank top and black shorts.

A sheriff’s deputy took the stand next who testified that he responded to a report of a kidnapping on May 4 on Hot Springs Road. He said he met with the girl’s aunt, who he said was extremely upset.

Shortly after he said additional law enforcement agents including detectives arrived on scene.

A detective for the Carson City Sheriff’s Office testified next. The detective told the court she was dispatched to Hot Springs Road and met with the child and her aunt.

The detective said she spoke with the aunt and learned that her niece had allegedly been taken and returned. The detective then viewed footage from the convenience store and stated she saw the black sedan described by the child’s aunt drive through the parking lot.

The detective said she and another detective then had the child show them the route she had been taken while the detective drove her.

The child directed them to a business complex on Nye and told detectives that is where she was taken by the man, according to testimony.

The detective said the child told them that the man got into the back seat and attempted to unbutton and remove her pants, and she said she held onto her pants, curled into a ball and started screaming. She said the man then got back into the driver’s seat and drove her back to Hot Springs Road.

When detectives drove the child back to Hot Springs, the detective said the child told them the man had light brown skin and a dollar sign tattooed under his eye. She said when asked whether the man was white, black, hispanic or asian, the child did not understand the question and just said the man had light brown skin.

She then showed detectives where she had been pushed out of the vehicle on Hot Springs Road.

The detective said the child described what the interior of the vehicle that took her looked like, including what the ignition and gear shift looked like, and some items that were on the floorboards of the vehicle including a blue "gas" bottle, and a sweatshirt with red letters on it.

The detective then located additional businesses that had cameras and after reviewing the footage was able to track a black vehicle following the path the child had taken detectives on.

The child then took the stand to testify.

The child told the court that while she was waiting for her lunches from the school bus, a man pulled up in a black car and said he was going to give her a dollar. She said when she went up to the car to get the dollar, he pulled her into the car through the window.

She said he then drove her to a new area and stopped driving. She said he then went out the driver’s door and then got into the back seat.

She said he got into the backseat, put his hands around her and tried to unbuckle her pants.

She said she started to yell “at the top of her lungs,” and when the prosecution asked what she yelled, she simply said, “help.”

She said after she started screaming, he got back in the car and drove her back to her aunt’s house. She said when they stopped he pushed her out of the car.

She then detailed what items were in the car, including a sweater with red lettering on it and a blue “gas” bottle on the floorboards of the backseat. She said the interior of the vehicle was a light tan.

She said the man was wearing a white tank top and black shorts. She said he had “black curly hair” and a money sign under his eye.

After she got pushed out of the car, she said she went to go get the lunches, got back on her bike and rode back to her aunt’s house and told her what happened.

She told the court when the police arrived, she went in the car with the detectives and showed them where the man took her.

When asked if the man was in the court room today, she pointed to Williams at the defense table.

Prosecution showed the child a photo of the man when he was arrested, wearing a white tank top and black shorts, and asked if she knew who that man was.

She said she did, and that it was “the person who took her.”

The court then heard testimony from the owner of the convenience store, whose cameras recorded video of the black vehicle driving past the convenience store, as well as the school bus arriving to deliver lunches.

Later, Williams’ fiancee took the stand. She told the court that she was at Williams’ residence when he left that morning and that he was “only gone for ten to fifteen minutes” when he went to a smoke shop to purchase a wrap.

When prosecution asked the fiancee if she recalled having a phone call with Williams where she told him he had been “gone too long that day” and that he should have taken him with her, she said she did not recall having that conversation.

When the prosecution asked if she remembered a phone conversation in which she asked him whether or not they would find evidence of the girl in his car and he refused to answer, she said she did not recall that conversation.

His fiancee was adamant that he was only gone ten to fifteen minutes. Prosecution asked whether or not if she was shown video evidence that showed it was longer than ten to fifteen minutes if that would change her mind, she said it would not.

His fiancee stated that he left sometime between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. but she could not remember what time during those hours he left the residence.

However, according to the original police report, the fiancee told investigators that Williams had left the residence around 9 a.m. and did not return until after 11 a.m., and that she did not know where he had gone after he left.

A criminologist from the Carson City Sheriff's Office testified next, who had taken photographs of the suspect vehicle and its contents.

Showing in the photos, among other things, was a sweatshirt with red lettering, a tan interior, a key and ignition matching the description given by the child, and a blue antifreeze bottle.

A Carson City Sheriff’s Office sergeant testified next. He said that he had located the vehicle and the defendant at Mills Park later in the evening on May 4, where he was found walking towards the Mills Park Skate Park with two juvenile males.

The sergeant said the defendant told him his identification was inside of the vehicle, and that the defendant gave the sergeant permission to retrieve it from the center console.

The sergeant said that while a detective spoke with the defendant, the defendant’s father and step-mother arrived on scene and made contact with the sergeant.

He said that the father told the sergeant that the vehicle belonged to Williams.

Another Carson City Detective testified last during the preliminary hearing, who had had contact with both the child and the defendant.

He said that when he made contact with the defendant at Mills Park, that the defendant told him the car belonged to him.

He said that inside the vehicle he could see a tan interior, what looked like a blue anti-freeze or oil jug on the passenger floorboards, and that he could see a sweatshirt in the backseat.

In closing arguments, the defense argued that there is no probable cause and that the child's story doesn't add up because there was no physical evidence on the child's arm to indicate she had been pulled inside a vehicle or that she had been pushed outside of a vehicle.

The defense alleges that the child could have simply seen into the car while Williams offered her a dollar and nothing further occurred.

The prosecution rebutted the defense's allegations, stating that because the child is small and does not weigh much means there wouldn't necessarily be bruising, and that there is numerous pieces of evidence to corroborate her story.

Judge Tatro stated that the child is a very credible witness and that he did not see anything in her testimony that would indicate she was making it up.

"She was in that car," said Judge Tatro. "There's no question."

He said that the route she described was also corroborated by video evidence.

"That is one very credible young lady," said Tatro. "I was moved by her testimony. There is more than sufficient evidence to show that you committed these crimes."

The defense asked the court to release Williams on his own recognizance, or allow him a $5,000 bail.

However, the prosecution argued that Williams is a threat to society, and has multiple crimes of violence in his history, as well as a current domestic battery case in Reno, and was previously a fugitive from justice as recent as 2019. He also did not appear on a bond in the state of California, according to the prosecution.

Bail stands at $250,000.

An arraignment is set in District Court on Tuesday June 16 at 9 a.m.