In the early hours of a Sunday morning in South Bend, Indiana, what initially appeared to be a straightforward car crash soon unraveled into a homicide investigation. On April 10, 2016, first responders arrived at the Indian Springs apartment complex to find a car had struck one of the buildings. Inside the vehicle was 34-year-old Gary Williams Jr., who was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy would later confirm that Williams had died from a gunshot wound, not from injuries sustained in the crash.
Gary Williams Jr., a Black male known for his entrepreneurial spirit and his clothing brand 'Hustle Holics,' was a father to three sons and two stepchildren. His passions included drawing, singing, and rapping. His unexpected death sent ripples of shock and grief through his family and the wider South Bend community.
The investigation into Williams' death quickly zeroed in on a suspect thanks to surveillance footage from the apartment complex. The video captured a man approaching Williams' car, opening the driver's side door, and leaning inside. Shortly after, the car's brake lights illuminated, and the vehicle lurched forward, crashing into the nearby building. The man was then seen fleeing the scene.
Investigators identified the man in the video as 21-year-old Nelson Cotton Jr. A key witness in the case was Cotton's own sister, Carmisha Williams, who was in the passenger seat of Gary Williams' car at the time of the shooting. Initially, she claimed an unknown person had shot him. However, when confronted with the existence of the surveillance video, she admitted that the shooter was her brother. Despite her admission, she told police she did not know why her brother would have shot Gary Williams.
Just four days after the fatal shooting, the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office formally charged Nelson Cotton Jr. with the murder of Gary Williams Jr. The case against him was built on the strength of the video evidence and his sister's testimony, which placed him at the scene and identified him as the perpetrator.
