A Macon, Georgia, pastor has been convicted of the murder of one of his two fiances in 2015. At his initial trial, he was convicted and given a life sentence, but the case has been tied up in appeals. Just this week, the Georgia Supreme Court confirmed he was correctly convicted. While William Pounds may have worked as a pastor, he lived a life of deception.
In the court opinion, the judges describe how he dated two women simultaneously over the course of a decade. “Pounds maintained romantic relationships with both women. During that period, both women became aware of the other’s relationship with Pounds,” the document reads. “Yet Pounds was repeatedly able to convince each woman that he had left the other.”
However, the deception was revealed when, ” On Sunday, May 31, 2015—“Pastor Appreciation Day” at the
church where Pounds was the pastor—Pounds brought Jackson with him to church, and Crawford came separately to church to surprise him.” The two women began texting each other, and “These texts led the women to discover that Pounds was cheating on each woman with the other, despite presently being engaged…to Crawford. ”
However, Crawford decided not to break off the engagement. The opinion explains how on “June 12, 2015—the
date Crawford and Pounds had set for their wedding—Pounds was not with Crawford, but with Jackson. Pounds called 9-1-1 from his house and reported that Jackson had committed suicide.” She was found dead of a single gunshot wound.
The pastor insisted that he tried to resuscitate her. When he was questioned by police, Pounds recounted how the pair had argued, and she told him, “If we’re going to separate, then one of us is going to have to leave the world.” Almost immediately, his story began to fall apart. At different times, the former pastor claimed to be in the room with her or downstairs when the incident happened.
Two months after the shooting occurred, Pounds was arrested. During his trial, an expert crime scene investigator testified that there was “no evidence that [Jackson] had the gun in her hand” and “fire[d] the fatal gunshot.” He also added that “there was seven and a half minutes between the injury and the 9-1-1 call.” In addition to the expert testimony, the court heard from witnesses.
According to the same document, “the State also called Jackson’s daughter to testify that, around 2007 or 2008, Pounds had hit Jackson and given her a black eye, and, around 2009, Pounds “came into [Jackson’s] house and… kicked the front door in,” forced Jackson into his car, and “drove away” with her.” In his appeal, the pastor said there was not enough evidence to convict him of the crime.
However, when the Supreme Court weighed the evidence and his past history of violence, they determined that he was correctly convicted and rejected the appeal. The judges concluded by writing, “In light of all of this