Trotman pleads guilty to two charges in death of 2-year-old | Crime | Berkeley Independent

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Trotman pleads guilty to two charges in death of 2-year-old

Published Tuesday, February 21, 2012 8:56 AM

By Stefan Rogenmoser
Berkeley Independent

Photos Provided

Grace Trotman (left) at the 2010 arraignment in Moncks Corner, Rodricus Fred Williams, and Roger Anthony Williams (right) at the 2010 arraignment in Moncks Corner.

A Berkeley County woman has pled guilty to two charges related to the 2010 death of 2-year-old Rodricus Fred Williams. In July 2010 the boy was found dead in a concrete-filled trashcan in Orangeburg County near Bowman.

Grace Trotman pled guilty On Feb. 16 to one count of homicide by child abuse (potential sentence, 20 years to life) and one count of desecration of human remains (potential sentence, up to 10 years), according to Ninth Circuit Court Assistant Solicitor Bryan Alfaro.

She pled guilty in Charleston before Judge R. Markley Dennis. She was being lodged in the Charleston County Detention Center but pled to Berkeley charges, Alfaro said.

Trotman’s sentencing was deferred and no date has been set yet, according to Alfaro. Trotman was the live-in girlfriend of the father, Roger Anthony Williams, both of Summerville. Both have been charged with homicide by child abuse. Williams’ court date has not been set yet, but he will probably go to court in June or July.

Trotman is not Rodricus’s mother, but she and Williams have two other children in common.

Rodricus had officially been missing since July 6, 2010, but forensic investigators later determined he probably died on or around June 6. His body was wrapped in plastic bags, encased in concrete, and left behind a mobile home in Orangeburg County.

The body was so badly decomposed it had to be identified through DNA testing.

Investigators believe Rodricus suffered some medical issue on or around June 6 at the Longbourne Way home in the Sangaree area of Berkeley County, prompting Trotman to call Williams.

Williams allegedly directed Trotman not to seek medical attention for the boy, nor did he do so himself when he arrived at the home later.

A series of events began rapidly unfolding the evening of July 6 at Battery Park in downtown Charleston. At that time Trotman reported to Charleston Police that she saw Rodricus wandering the Battery and said he had possibly gone through the rails and fallen over the seawall into the harbor. An intense search for the boy ensued but was called off the next morning when it was determined that Rodricus had never been at the Battery.

Rodricus was the son of Williams and Shaneeka Washington, of Columbia. The two had made an arrangement for Rodricus to stay with Williams and Trotman at their home on Longbourne Way in Summerville until September.

However, Washington unexpectedly decided to travel from the Columbia area to see Rodricus. She and Williams apparently made arrangements for her to see Rodricus at Battery Park in Charleston.

That, investigators believe, is when they decided to concoct the story about the child getting lost and falling over the seawall.

Since the case originated in Berkeley County, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation.

Williams was arrested at the Summerville Econo Lodge near I-26 in Berkeley County.

Staff writer Jim Tatum contributed to this story.

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