In Georgia, a man has been found guilty of murdering his bedridden and paralyzed wife, who was left to decline in a waste-covered bed, before being abandoned on the floor to perish in her soiled room, as prosecutors disclosed.

Cobb County jurors swiftly reached a verdict in the case of Gary Williams from Marietta, concluding in under an hour. The 2021 case involved the death of his wife, Addreinne Gordon, who, due to left-side paralysis, was largely confined to her bed, according to court documents obtained by Law&Crime.

Williams received a life sentence following a jury’s decision, convicting him of felony murder and neglect. Cobb County prosecutors highlighted his conviction in a press release that detailed how Gordon succumbed to blood poisoning and bore multiple injuries, both fresh and old, as noted by medical professionals and Adult Protection Services, police reported.

The incident unfolded on November 9, 2021, when Gordon was taken to a hospital in an unconscious state and placed on life support after Williams made a distress call to the police, indicating her condition had become critical. She passed away the following day.

Cobb County District Attorney Sonya F. Allen remarked that the focus of the case was not solely on Gordon’s death, but the circumstances of her existence. “She lived in continual distress, trapped in a failing body and reliant on her sole caregiver,” Allen stated. “She was left in degrading conditions—sores and lesions marred her skin, her hair was tangled, nails excessively grown, and her bed was filthy. Without the ability to care for herself, she endured an agonizing existence, reliant on someone who failed to provide even basic dignity and comfort until her death.”

Court documents filed by prosecutors and Williams’ own defense lawyer outline how Gordon depended on Williams, who was arrested in February, to take care of her and change her clothes, including diapers she wore due to her health condition. A motion filed by Williams’ attorney in April described what he claimed happened before Gordon’s death.

“Mr. Williams told detectives that his wife seemed fine on Sunday, but that on Monday, she started feeling a ‘little funky,'” according to the motion. “She wasn’t eating, just drinking a bunch of fluids. She told him that she thought she had messed the bed up, and Gary told detectives, ‘Man did she ever.’ He figured that’s why she was not eating.”

Williams claimed he was “getting ready to change her diaper” when she suddenly got “uncomfortable” and “spun to the right real hard.” Gordon allegedly started to fall off the bed, according to Williams, and he claims to have caught her “but in doing so he aggravated his back,” the motion said.

“Gary had to lower [Addreinne] to the ground because he could not get her back into the bed all the way,” the document alleged. “Mr. Williams got [Addreinne] some pillows and a comforter and asked her if she’d be OK, because he would need to wait until the next day to try and get her back up into the bed.”

Williams’ lawyer claimed he told Gordon that he would need to get someone to help him, but she “told him no because she didn’t want anyone to see her covered in feces,” per the court filing.

“This ended up not working, and things started getting ‘real bad’ on Tuesday,” the motion added. “That was when Mr. Williams called 911.”

The man’s attorney cited the couple’s “911 call/dispatch history” for their residence and said it showed “multiple calls” since 2018, several of which were calls made by Williams to 911 for assistance with Gordon, according to the lawyer.

“One call was for [Addreinne] fainting (June 2018), another was for Gary falling (December 2018),” the April motion alleged. “In July 2018, Gary called for help with his wife because she was too heavy to pick up.”

Authorities say Gordon was “covered in feces from toe to breast” when first responders arrived at their home. “Despite being her only caretaker, accused claim[ed] she had no wounds on Monday when she rolled out of bed,” police alleged. “She was then left on the bedroom floor and feces until Tuesday afternoon.”