Man tells judge he deserves death sentence

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Posted 7:47AM on Friday, June 28, 2002

AIKEN, S.C. - A man who admitted he raped and killed a 6-year-old boy told a judge he deserved to die for his crime. ``I think it would be disrespectful to the family and disrespectful to the whole world if you did not give me the death penalty,'' William ``Junior'' Downs said. Circuit Judge Casey Manning agreed, sentencing Downs, 34, to death Thursday for the murder of Keenan O'Mailia. The sentence followed several unusual hearings over the past two weeks where Downs left no doubt he wanted to be sent to death row. He pleaded guilty to murder June 13, which meant under South Carolina law Manning would decide if he got life in prison without parole or death. The body of the mostly naked North Augusta boy was found in April 1999 covered with debris. He had been missing since the evening before, when he was riding his bicycle along a dirt path near his home. Downs said he stopped the victim along the path, asking him his name before throwing him to the ground and strangling him. Downs returned the next morning to dump the boy's body into the Savannah River, but he left when a woman near the park told him police were looking for a missing boy. Augusta, Ga., prosecutors say Downs also faces the death penalty if they can convict him of raping and killing 10-year-old James Porter a decade ago. During a statement at Thursday's hearing, Downs whispered ``I'm sorry'' to Keenan's mother Nina O'Mailia. The mother had sat on the witness stand two days ago and stoically told Downs God wanted her to forgive him despite her anger. ``I don't see how she can say that, but I want to tell her thank you,'' Downs said. ``It took the biggest heart in the world to do something like that.'' Keenan's grandmother, Merrie Miller, who had two days earlier called Downs a ``demonic being,'' said his remorse showed God at work. ``I think it demonstrates the power of Nina's words to him,'' Miller said. Police chased 200 unsuccessful leads before Downs showed a friend of his sister a newspaper article about his crime and confessed.