Left to right: Cheryl Lynn Williams and Blane Lane (Polk County Sheriff”s Office).
A Florida woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for the choices she made that resulted in the death of a deputy, even though she did not fire the shot that took his life.
Earlier this month, Cheryl Lynn Williams, 49, was found guilty by a Polk County jury on all counts against her, including murder in the second degree, resisting an officer with violence while armed, three counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
In October 2022, the defendant was arrested on 13 felony charges after Polk County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Blane Lane, 21, was shot and killed by friendly fire while part of a four-person team serving a felony arrest warrant on Williams at her residence in Polk City – a small town located roughly 40 miles southwest of Orlando.
On Friday, 10th Judicial Circuit Judge Michelle Pincket sentenced the defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder conviction, Sunshine State court records show.
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While more or less pro forma, Williams received an additional four life sentences on the resisting an officer and aggravated assault charges. The judge assessed those sentences to run concurrently, or at the same time, as her other life sentence. The condemned woman was also granted 1,080 days of credit for time served in pretrial detention.
At the time of the raid that took Lane’s life, Williams was wanted for failure to appear in court on a drug possession charge.
On Oct. 4, 2022, at around 3 a.m., Lane and three others – Sergeant Michael Brooks, and Deputies Johnny Holsonback III and Adam Pennell – arrived and quickly determined Williams was somewhere in the back part of the residence, citing a witness on the scene.
At the scene, a second witness then said, “She’s in here,” which caused Lane to assume a “tactical” position near the rear of the building as the other three deputies went inside.
“Lane’s tactical position afforded him the view of the door and windows to ensure that he would see the suspect in the event she tried to flee,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release.
Williams then appeared near a “gaming room” while brandishing a “silver handgun,” later determined to be a “very realistic-looking BB gun,” the sheriff’s office said. A hail of gunfire ensued. Williams was struck at least twice – but so was Lane, once.
The lone bullet entered his arm and made its way into his chest. The deputy, who had been sworn in to serve just a few months prior, succumbed to his injuries at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center.
“This suspect’s outrageous criminal actions were the cause of my deputy being killed in the line of duty, and the jury appropriately found her guilty as charged,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in comments provided to St. Petersburg-based CBS affiliate WTSP. “Her family can visit her in prison, but Blane’s family has to visit his grave in a cemetery and can only have a one-sided conversation with him. We will never forget Deputy Blane Lane, and his family remains in our prayers.”
A sentencing memorandum prepared by prosecutors requested – and received – additional sentences of life in prison for Williams because her actions on the day in question also “intentionally placed” each of the three other law enforcement officers “in fear for his life, knowing that he was engaged in the performance of a legal duty.”
