Robins airman accused of killing fiancee, unborn child could face court-martial in June
WARNER ROBINS -- A senior airman at Robins Air Force Base accused of killing his fiancee and their unborn child for $1 million in insurance money was back in a borrowed courtroom of the Houston County Courthouse earlier this week for hearings.
Charlie Amos Wilson III, 27, was also linked to another death in an unrelated suspicious fire, and he faces other military charges in two other unrelated incidents.
On Monday and Tuesday, military personnel argued motions from the defense at the Houston County Courthouse in Perry related to his court-martial. Some of the motions were to compel experts, suppress evidence seized from a search of Wilson’s residence and to sever the different charges into three separate trials, according to an email from Robins spokesman Roland Leach.
There were also motions raising constitutional issues based on the fact that the case is a capital referral, which means the death penalty may be a possible punishment if Wilson is convicted, Leach said.
The U.S. Air Force’s Chief Trial Judge Col. Vance H. Spath, who is presiding over the case, is expected to issue rulings on the motions sometime next month.
Two other motions hearings are expected in 2015, with the earliest possible date for Wilson’s court-martial sometime in June, Leach said.
The investigating officer at a hearing in May and the court-martial convening authority in October both found grounds for a capital referral.
In the early-morning hours of Aug. 29, 2013, the body of 30-year-old Tameda Ferguson, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, was found shot in her Dawson home.
Wilson was arrested two days later on charges of murder and feticide after an investigation by the GBI and Terrell County Sheriff’s Office. The case was later turned over to the Air Force at its request. Wilson’s military charges include premeditated murder and death of an unborn child.
In October 2011, Demetrius Hardy, 27, a civilian worker at Robins, died from injuries sustained in a fire. Wilson is accused of asking Hardy to set fire to Wilson’s rental home to collect insurance money. But something went wrong, and Hardy died from injuries sustained in the fire. Charges related to that include felony murder, aggravated arson, conspiracy and burning with intent to defraud.
In July 2012, Wilson was involved in an incident with a female Air Force service member. Charges against Wilson include assault, intentional discharge of a firearm and communicating a threat. Wilson also faces an obstruction charge related to being held in custody.
Assigned to the 461st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Wilson has been on active duty for more than eight years.
He was held in pre-trial confinement at the Houston County jail Sunday through Wednesday for the motions hearings, before being returned to a Charleston Air Force Base facility to await trial.
This story was originally published December 19, 2014 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Robins airman accused of killing fiancee, unborn child could face court-martial in June ."