CAMBRIDGE — Tramelle Williams, 23, of Cambridge was handed two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the December 2022 murders of 24-year-old Taijay Daniels and 69-year-old Lory Fields.
Before handing over the sentence on Monday, Dorchester County Administrative Judge William Jones called surveillance footage of Daniels’ death “possibly in the top five, if not [the] number two most difficult thing I’ve had to see.”
Williams also was handed a consecutive 20-year sentence for robbery charges, and two additional consecutive 20-year sentences with mandatory minimums of five years for firearms charges.
Williams was tried separately for the murders of Daniels and Fields. He was found guilty on all counts — which included first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, robbery and firearms charges — in both trials.
A motion for a new trial for the death of Fields, filed by Williams’ defense in late January, was denied at the sentencing hearing Monday.
According to court documents, Williams’ defense argued there was insufficient evidence to support that a robbery had occurred and that Williams had intended to kill or harm Fields. His defense included in the motion that evidence related to Daniels’ death was “unintentionally admitted and sent back” to the jury in the trial for the death of Fields.
According to court documents, in response, the state said the motion for a new trial should be denied because the evidence “clearly supported a conviction on all counts,” and said none of the jurors had knowledge of the Daniels case.
“‘Taijay Daniels’ would be nothing more than a ‘John Doe’ to the seated jurors,” the state’s response to the motion says.