Testimony to begin Tuesday morning in Williams trial

MONCKS CORNER -- Jury selection and opening statements in the trial of Roger Anthony Williams took place Monday at the Berkeley County Courthouse before Circuit Judge Markley Dennis. Testimony was expected to begin Tuesday morning.

Williams, 31, of Summerville, attempted to cover up the death of his 2-year-old son Rodricus Williams, according to investigators. He was arrested on July 8, 2010 and charged with homicide by child abuse.

Rodricus Williams was found in a trash can in Orangeburg County. The discovery was made after Williams and his former girlfriend Grace Trotman concocted a story that the boy had gone missing after falling into the water off The Battery in downtown Charleston on July 6, 2010.

Search crews spent hours looking to no avail. According to affidavits, Trotman admitted to an FBI agent that she made up the missing-child story to cover up the boy’s death. Williams said the boy had an ongoing health condition that needed to be monitored.

Trotman eventually led authorities to the boy’s body, which was concealed in a trash can filled with 400 pounds of concrete behind an abandoned house in Bowman. The boy had been dead for about a month.

Authorities said the child died after his father, Williams, refused to get him medical help and forbade Trotman from contacting a doctor. The Berkeley County coroner ruled that the child died of blunt trauma to the head.

Trotman, 26, of Longbourne Way in Summerville, pleaded guilty Feb. 16 in circuit court in Charleston County to one count of homicide by child abuse and one count of desecration of human remains. She has not yet been sentenced.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Earlier versions of this story incorrectly stated that opening arguments were to take place Tuesday. The Post and Courier regrets the error.

Follow twitter.com/ncaula for updates from the trial this week.