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Biography: Brian Williams

From the Ann Arbor News, March 27, 2005: Williams' brother Amos, a Detroit attorney, said ... that Brian Williams is still undergoing treatment, and doctors plan to keep him in custody "until they determine that he has gotten where he can be safely released." He said his brother's mental condition is improving, and he is complying with doctors and staff. "He went through a period of remorse," Amos Williams said of his brother. He said Brian Williams was recently allowed to move into an advanced treatment program in which he will attempt to learn how to deal with his illness, and "gain insights into his situation."

Brian Williams was found not guilty by reason of insanity in June 2001 and was taken to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Kevin Heisinger.

Williams was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in his late teens. He was 40 at the time of the murder.

Brian Williams in court

From a Detroit Free Press article: "Brian Williams lived in a cycle: get treatment, do well, stop taking medicine, get sick again. When off his medicine, Williams would disappear or stay in homeless shelters. He'd resurface months later in faraway places including Washington state or Baltimore, Md. That changed in the early 1990s. With help from his brother, a Detroit attorney and retired police lieutenant, he settled in Detroit. By 1995, Williams moved to Ypsilanti, near Eastern Michigan University, and became a client of the Washtenaw County Community Mental Health Organization. Williams took classes at EMU, mainly in computer studies."

From a Detroit News article: "Williams' brother, Detroit attorney Amos Williams, said ... that his brother Brian is mentally ill. He is intelligent, brother to three engineers, two of whom graduated from the University of Michigan, and a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army. Amos Williams says his brother's intelligence makes his mental illness harder. "It would be better, he would have less psychic pain, if he were less intelligent. But he knows he's trapped. ... Once, he sat down and cried. He said, 'look at you guys, and look at me,' " Amos Williams said."

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