Stabbing Turns To Homicide On Panama City Beach
By: Stephen Crews
Updated: January 22, 2011
A stabbing turns into a case of homicide on Panama City Beach.
Tonight, the suspect in the death of 23 year old Paul Anthony Brown is in custody.
Authorities say Brown was stabbed multiple times and later died at Bay Medical Center.
The suspect faces an open count of murder. Witnesses say he used to live at the Blue Water Inn at the corner of Hills Road and Front Beach Road where the homicide took place. One man who knew the victim says the night turned from a boozing party to violence quickly.
William Morales is tired and worn out. He spent half of Thursday
night riding at Bay Medical with a friend who’d been stabbed “…I felt
bad because he didn’t have no family with him when it happened, so I
told her ‘he’s my best friend’ so I just left with him. I didn’t want
him to die alone.”
Residents were having a party. There was alcohol, but Morales saw both
the suspect and the victim talking and seemed to be having fun.
Morales had just offered for Paul Brown to crash in his apartment when things turned ugly “It looked like he had just punched him from where I was standing. I seen Paul fall, so I ran up the steps and I seen him, I seen that he had blood on his shirt.”
Morales screamed for help while applying pressure to brown’s wounds but saw how bad his injuries were “…everybody started crying and stuff “They were all in shock because there was like 5 people in the house and nobody heard them.”
Witnesses to the event say an altercation took place right outside that hotel room. The suspect then fled down into the parking lot, jumped into his silver car and left the scene.
Morales muses “…he must have known he was in trouble, cause he just started running.”
Chief Robert Harding of the Panama City Beach Police says the suspect reappeared and officers arrested him “…At about 1:35 this morning he was spotted back in the area by investigating officers. He was stopped by patrol officers and taken into custody without incident.”
Chesley Ernest Williams is now in custody and faces an open count of murder.
Williams pled no contest to battery for an incident back in May of last year, according to the Bay County Court records.
