ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WJHL) — In a recent decision, Federal Judge W. Carleton Metcalf has approved a request from Sean Williams, a convicted sex offender and former resident of Johnson City, to postpone the deadlines for his federal drug and child pornography possession cases.

The 53-year-old Williams sought his eighth adjournment shortly after being assigned new public defense attorneys. He is already facing a potential 95-year prison sentence due to federal convictions in the Eastern District of Tennessee, related to the sexual abuse of three minors, incidents that were captured in his Johnson City apartment.

Williams was apprehended in Cullowhee, N.C., in April 2023, following a nearly two-year evasion of federal ammunition charges. Upon completion of his federal cases in North Carolina, he is expected to confront additional state-level trials in Jonesborough.

Prosecutors, for the first time, contested the request to extend the deadlines and defer the trials. Nonetheless, Metcalf emphasized that denying the continuance would hinder the defense’s ability to engage a computer forensic expert.

He stated that not granting the delay “would result in a miscarriage of justice” and that the “ends of justice served by granting of the continuance outweigh the best interests of the public and the Defendant in a speedy trial.”

Refusing a delay, he added, “would result in a miscarriage of justice” and that “the ends of justice served by granting of the continuance outweigh the best interests of the public and the Defendant in a speedy trial.”

Williams’s attorneys now have until Nov. 17 to submit pretrial motions, and both his North Carolina trials are continued to a term later than the Asheville Division’s Nov. 3 term.