Rhonda Thompson was on the phone last year with her sister, 58-year-old Stacey Lynn Williams, when the call disconnected.
She said she texted her sister, figuring that her phone died and told her they’d talk in a few days when she arrived in Lubbock for their uncle’s funeral.
But she said Williams called her back moments later, telling her that she’d seen the messages but said, “I wanna talk to my big sister before then.”
She said they laughed and picked up the conversation they had.
It was the last time the two would talk. A few days later, Williams’ body would be found along Texas 137 about six miles south of Brownfield, a day after she was abducted by a man who also shot her son in the back.
“Our family had serious concerns as we couldn’t fathom a reason someone would take Stacey against her will,” Thompson would write in a victim impact statement read aloud in court. “We were also fearful about what the perpetrator’s intent might be.”
Thompson wondered, “What kind of person would show up, uninvited, to a person’s place of residence and at gunpoint force them to leave with them and shoot that person’s child?”
Williams’ abductor, 44-year-old Miguel Garcia, appeared with his attorney, Cynthia Mendoza, last month in the 364th District Court, where he pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
As part of his plea deal with the Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office, Garcia, who has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since his March 14, 2024, arrest, was handed a 45-year prison sentence on the kidnapping charge and a 20-year sentence for the aggravated assault charge.
The sentences will run concurrently and he will have to serve half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
His charge stems from a March 12, 2024 Lubbock police investigation that began after Williams’ son, 41-year-old Jabaar Smith, called 911 to report that a stranger came to their apartment in the 102 Waco Avenue Apartments, shot him in the back and abducted his mother at gunpoint.
Smith told investigators that he heard his mother arguing with someone outside their apartment.
He said went outside to check on his mother after he heard her tell the person, “Don’t do this.”
He said he walked around the corner into the breezeway and saw the man pulling his mother by her arm.
Smith said he confronted the man but his mother told him to stay away.
Smith said he saw the man was armed with a gun and ran back to his apartment. He said the man shot him in the back then left with his mother.
Investigators found video of Williams’ abduction captured by the apartment’s security cameras.
The video showed a man, later identified as Garcia, arriving in a dark-colored pickup truck.
Garcia could be seen concealing a gun knocking on the door of Williams’ and Smith’s next door neighbor, then approaches their door.
Moments later, Garcia is seen holding an arm around Williams’ head and was dragging her away.
Williams could be seen struggling against Garcia, who he pushes against the wall and points a gun at.
Meanwhile, Smith is seen walking around the corner toward the man but turns around to run away and is shot in the back.
The next day, the Texas Rangers were notified of a dead body found about 8 a.m. along Texas Highway 137 about six miles south of Brownfield in Terry County. The body was later positively identified as Williams.
Garcia, who was identified as the suspect through his distinct tattoos on his arms and wrist, was arrested by members of the Lubbock police SWAT Team at a home in 100 block of East Tulane Street.
Smith, who watched Garcia’s sentencing hearing with his family members, stood up as District Judge William Eichman offered his condolences.
Prosecutor Courtney Boyd said the medical findings in the investigation made the aggravated kidnapping charge, a first-degree felony, the strongest case against Garcia, whose previous criminal record only showed a misdemeanor marijuana charge.
However, she said the 45-year prison sentence accounts for Garcia’s actions the night he abducted Williams and causing the medical issues that led to her death.
“I think it protects the community from him, and the danger that he has obviously demonstrated himself to be, for a long time while saving the family a trial,” she said.
While Garcia’s plea closes a chapter in the case, Boyd said some mysteries will remain, particularly, the motive behind Williams’ abduction as it remains unclear what linked the two.
“The only thing we have is some statements from him that I don’t know how credible they are,” she said. “I’m not aware of any kind of relationship between them at all.”
Remembering Stacey Lynn Williams
Boyd read statements from Williams’ family members who described her as a loving sister, aunt and mother.
“Life is so hard without her light in it,” wrote Williams’ aunt, Ruth Dotson.
Shannon Laster, Williams’ sister, described her sister as a woman of faith who offered prayers to those facing hard times.
“Her capacity for love was immeasurable,” she wrote.
Thompson said her sister’s compassion was boundless.
“She would do anything that she could to help anyone in need,” Thompson wrote. “She was always full of love and laughter.”
She said Garcia shattered her family and much like the bullet still lodged in his body, the memory of the last time her nephew saw his mother will stay with him forever.
“I hope he never ever sees the outside of a prison wall,” she wrote. “Anyone who can do what he has done is a threat to society and doesn’t deserve to live on the free side of any prison wall. May he get what he deserves.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock man sentenced to 45 years in woman’s kidnapping, motive remains mystery
Reporting by Gabriel Monte, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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