In the summer of 2017, a grim discovery was made in a rural area of St. Helena Parish, Louisiana. The bodies of two men, 29-year-old Mohamed Sead Hussain and 23-year-old Dedrick Dewayne Williams, both from Baker, Louisiana, were found in the back of an abandoned car on June 1st. Both men had been shot multiple times.
The investigation into the double homicide led authorities to William Bottoms Jr., a 29-year-old with a significant criminal history.
Bottoms, along with his then-girlfriend Megan Marie Gaylord, had been with Hussain and Williams in Gaylord's car on the day of the murders. According to Gaylord's later testimony, the group had been using drugs when Bottoms became paranoid and shot both Hussain and Williams as they sat in the back seat.
After the shootings, Gaylord drove to Bottoms' residence, where he retrieved bleach and a sheet. The bleach was used in an attempt to destroy evidence, and the sheet was used to cover the bodies of the victims. The car was later abandoned in the rural location where it was discovered.
William Bottoms Jr. was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder. His trial garnered significant media attention, partly due to his extensive and prominent facial tattoos, which his defense attorney feared would prejudice the jury. Megan Marie Gaylord, who was initially arrested as an accessory after the fact, had the charges against her dropped and testified for the prosecution, providing a firsthand account of the events that transpired. In August 2019, a jury found William Bottoms Jr. guilty of the murders of Mohamed Sead Hussain and Dedrick Dewayne Williams. He was subsequently sentenced for his crimes.
