photo by: Gage Vota

Malcolm Alcindor Williams, right, speaks to his attorney, Bruce Clark, before being sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted murder with a firearm specification.

Malcolm Alcindor Williams kept it short and to the point Monday when Belmont County Common Pleas Judge Chris Berhalter asked if he wanted to make a statement before his sentencing.

“I’m an innocent man,” Williams said.

Williams, an over-the-road truck driver from Alabama, was sentenced to 14 years in prison by Berhalter Monday morning after being found guilty of shooting another trucker, Michael Brundage, in the face in January 2024.

Williams received 11 years for attempted murder for shooting the Ellenboro, West Virginia, resident in the face on the side of Interstate 470 west of Bellaire with an additional three years for a firearms specification.

Berhalter said the evidence the prosecution presented overwhelmingly proved Williams’ guilt. He said the data from his truck placed him near the victim idling as well as showed that Williams stopped at the time the victim was shot.

“The bullet that struck the victim in the face was fired from the gun found in your pocket when you were arrested,” Berhalter said to Williams.

He noted the only evidence not offered by Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan was a motive.

“You had never even met the victim. This was not a case of self defense. This was not a case of settling a grudge,” Berhalter said. “In this court’s mind, that makes you one of the most dangerous people I’ve ever had to impose a sentence on. It appears you shot him for sport or even pleasure.”

Flanagan said that the one thing that he could not show to a jury was motive. He added that Williams pulled over and walked to the victim, asking him what was wrong.

Flanagan said that the victim told Williams he believed there was a problem with the fuel filter of his truck.

“Within seconds, he is shot in the face. And again, that is the part that is most concerning because, as Judge Berhalter pointed out, there was no grudge, there was no motive, there was no provocation,” Flanagan said. “That is the one thing in all of this that leaves you scratching your head. How could somebody commit this sheer act of violence without any type of provocation, without any type of reason at all?”

He added that Williams showed no remorse throughout the course of the trial.

“Out of all of the things that are scary about this crime, the fact that there is no remorse is the scariest,” Flanagan said.