CHARLESTON, W.Va – Barack Williams could spend life behind bars after a jury found the 15-year-old guilty of felony murder in connection with the 2024 robbery that left Caden Martin, a 19-year-old clerk at a vape shop in Charleston, dead.

Williams, who was tried as an adult, sat before Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers Monday afternoon as she read the jury’s verdict.

“We the jury find the defendant, Barack Howard Williams, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of felony murder during the commission of a first-degree robbery,” Judge Akers said from the bench.

The automatic sentence for Williams is life in prison with the possibility of parole in 15 years.

Monday marked the end of an emotional trial, which nearly reached a boiling point when Judge Akers received a note from the ju

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