STUART — In seeking justice for their mother, the children of Maribel Morales-Rosado showed a united front in court as each testified Tuesday during the trial of Donald “Hondo” Williams III, who is accused of killing her in 2020.

Prosecutors said Williams III, 30, fatally shot Morales-Rosado, 32, inside her Indiantown home Aug. 11, 2020, as her six children, then ages 9 to 17, watched. Her three sons and two of her daughters testified for the state as the trial began at the Martin County Courthouse, in Stuart.

Williams III has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary of a dwelling with an assault while armed and being a felon in possession of a firearm. If convicted, he faces an automatic life prison term.

Jurors were told the murder happened on the first day school as Morales-Rosado’s children were beginning remote learning classes at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The children knew Williams III, as he’d dated their mother about a year earlier, a prosecutor told the jury of seven women and six men.

“The anticipation of a new school year turned into terror for six siblings from Indiantown when the defendant, Donald Williams, walked in through their front door,” Assistant State Attorney Kristen Chase said. “He quickly displayed, lifting his T-shirt, that there was a gun in his waistband.”

Williams III confronted Morales-Rosado about an embarrassing Facebook video he accused her of posting, Chase said.

Morales-Rosado, who denied posting anything about Williams III, instructed one daughter to call 911.

That frantic 911 call, which jurors heard Tuesday, ended up recording the chaotic incident as Williams III fired twice from a gun he had loaded at home before making the seven-minute walk to Morales-Rosado’s home in the 14700 block of Southwest 173rd Avenue, according to Chase.

“Two shots ring out … one of those shots strikes Maribel Morales-Rosado,” Chase said. “Those two shots came from the gun that was in the hands of the defendant that he shot Maribel with, in front of her children.”

Tearful testimony

The first sibling to testify, Jessica Rosado, 19, described how Williams III shot her mother then pointed his gun at her as she stood in front of her mother, and then at her brother, now 13, who tried to stab Williams III with a knife grabbed from the kitchen.

She said Williams III asked her mother why she posted a video about him on her Facebook page.

“My mom was like, ‘what video are you talking about, there’s no video about you on my Facebook page,’” Jessica Rosado recalled.

She said she moved in front of her mother before Williams III fired twice, first striking a laptop on a kitchen table, then her mother.

“My mother was begging for her life,” said Jessica Rosado, who at times paused to compose herself.

As she spoke, her four siblings seated a few feet away, wiped tears from their eyes.   

“She was like, ‘please don’t do it in front of my kids, don’t do it. Don’t do it,’” she recalled.

Williams III turned the gun on her, she said, as her younger brother approached him from behind with a knife in an effort to stop the attack.

Williams III then pointed the gun at the boy, she said.

The boy, who testified before a lunch break, recalled how he tried to hit Williams III in the back, but he dropped the knife when Williams III pointed toward him with a gun before turning to flee the house on a bicycle belonging to one of the children.

Court papers show Williams III is suspected of using a handgun stolen in 2015 in a Sewall’s Point vehicle burglary.

Seated by his two court-appointed attorneys wearing a white dress shirt, tie and tan slacks, Williams III never made eye contact with the children as each identified him in court by describing his clothing.

In her opening remarks, his defense attorney, Charlotte Grose, said nothing about the murder or circumstances and instead reminded jurors the state has the burden of proving Williams III guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

“We talked about how high that standard is,” Grose told jurors. “I want you to remember that standard today, tomorrow, and Thursday.”

Apprehended after fleeing

According to investigators, Williams III fled the Morales-Rosado home on a bicycle and then got onto a community MARTY bus, where he asked the driver to take him to Stuart. The driver told deputies she saw a bag in Williams III’s hand and got suspicious and called 911. A firearm was found inside the bag.

The sheriff’s SWAT team took Williams III into custody.

After his arrest, Williams III agreed to speak with investigators and said before the shooting he walked through Morales-Rosado’s front door and confronted her about a video he’d been told about, but admitted he hadn’t seen himself.

She denied knowing about it, he told investigators, “but when she smiled, he ‘knew’ that she had released the video,” Williams III stated.

He admitted shooting Morales-Rosado “two times and then exited the residence.”

Janet Rosado, Morales-Rosado’s cousin, testified Tuesday that two of the children ran to her home across the street seeking help for their mother.

She said she saw Williams III riding off on a bike and found her cousin on a bloody floor in the laundry room but still alive.

“I found Maribel in a fetus position in the laundry room. I saw blood scattered everywhere on the floor,” she said, her voice breaking. “She kept on saying, ‘I don’t know what I did to him … Hondo, he came to my house.”

Morales-Rosado had a bullet wound in her torso.

“All she kept on saying was like, ‘take care of my kids. Please don’t separate them,’” Janet Rosado recalled. “’Don’t let me down.’”