William Cawthon

Name:
Cawthon, William Keith

Date of Booking:
08/27/2025

Reason(s) For Booking:
AGGRAVATED ASSAULT

Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]

On 08/26/2025 approximately 2258 hours, I Deputy J. Coffey was dispatched to [400 BLOCK] Sam Bell Rd. Clarkesville GA, in reference to a possible altercation and theft that occurred between the caller and a 14 year old minor boy. Dispatch advised me at this time, that they were currently gathering additional information to the call, and stated that the minor had rode off on a bicycle.

While en-route to the call, I turned down Sam Bell Road, at which according to the information provided to me by dispatch at the time, I was actively looking for a male juvenile riding a bicycle who had left the scene of the altercation, at which I did not locate before arriving at the residence of [400 BLOCK] Sam Bell Road.

Upon my arrival at the stated address, I observed a white in color Chevy Tahoe (Georgia Tag number- [REDACTED]) in the drive way with the brake lights on, and the reverse lights on attempting to back out of the driveway, and 3 male occupants ” Later identified as Justin Clark which was the driver, Roman Franklin, and Elliot Smith” ,along with a Gray in color Jeep Wrangler (Georgia Tag number – [REDACTED]) with no doors, starting its engine, and 3 occupants ” Later identified as Cohan Chitwood, William Cawthon, and Michael McDuffie” all breathing heavily as if they were out of breath, with the back seat occupant McDuffie sitting sideways in the rear seat and bleeding on his face. I then heard screaming for help with a faint gargled scream coming from the front of the Jeep which was parked just outside of the garage to the home. I then saw a man ” Later identified as [VICTIM #1] ” laying on the ground outside of the garage in the driveway bleeding and in pain crying out for help. Immediately I radioed for dispatch to send a Medical unit to my location for a man down bleeding in the driveway, and advised my supervisor Lt. Hicks that there were approximately 5-6 people trying to leave that possibly have been fighting, and asked him to “Step it up” to respond quickly based on the current circumstances.

At this time, I ordered all 3 occupants in the Jeep to show me their hands and not to move, and then yelled to the occupants of the Tahoe to get out of the vehicle and show me their hands. Lt. Hicks then arrived on scene along with several other Officers and Deputies shortly after Lt. Hicks arrival, and I advised all the suspected occupants that they are not free to leave and they were being detained while I investigated the incident at hand.

Once the scene was safe I checked on [VICTIM #1] as he was still crying out in pain. [VICTIM #1] was visibly injured, halfway in the fetal position laying partially on his side, bleeding from his face, and had cuts and blood on his hands. [VICTIM #1] was shallow breathing as he was trying to tell me where he was hurting and what happened to him. [VICTIM #1] kept saying that they beat him with a baseball bat, sticks, pipes and all kinds of stuff and tried to kill him, and that he had been robbed by them. I also observed a medium sized dagger like knife with a red in color handle on the ground with a black knife sheath next to it in close proximity to [VICTIM #1] which had me concerned at the time that [VICTIM #1] may have been stabbed, which could have caused his bleeding and shallow breathing.

Once the Medical unit arrived, they placed [VICTIM #1] on a stretcher and put him in the back of the Ambulance to stabilize him and assess his injuries and vital signs. During their assessment, I was asking Smith, Franklin and Clark what they were doing there at the residence. All 3 of them stated that they had just pulled in right before I had arrived as they came over looking for a friend named Shelly, and saw the Jeep getting ready to back out, so they decided to leave. They acted as if they didn’t know what had happened, but also appeared to be overly nervous breathing hard, wide eyes, frantically looking around and speaking fast. I asked them if they made contact with Sherry before they tried to leave, being that they stated they just got there and then left that quickly. They all stated no they didn’t see Sherry and didn’t even know if she was there, that they just decided to leave. I stated to them that the story they told me didn’t make sense based off what Ive observed since I arrived on scene.

While speaking with Chitwood, Cawthon, and McDuffie I asked them what happened at which they all stated they didn’t do anything. I asked McDuffie why he had blood on his face at which he said that he got jumped and that [VICTIM #1] beat his a*s, so he was just trying to leave. At this time I saw a young Male walk up in the yard, and I asked who he was, at which he stated that he was [REDACTED BY AGENCY] and that he lived there at the NARRresidence, that he was scared and left when Michael started fighting, that he was scared of Michael “Michael McDuffie’. I advised [REDACTED BY AGENCY] to standby and we would speak with him in just a moment.

I then walked over to the ambulance and got inside to check on [VICTIM #1] and ask him if he could provide more details about what occurred. [VICTIM #1] then stated that when he got home that evening it looked like someone robbed him and stole his TV and some other items from in his house. He stated that McDuffie was there in the kitchen wearing his glasses and ball cap that he knew he had inside his room and had locked the door before he left earlier. [VICTIM #1] then confront McDuffie about his items, and asked how he got ahold of them and confronted him about stealing them and breaking into his room. [VICTIM #1] then stated that McDuffielunged at him and punched him in the face knocking him down, and started to hit on him when he got up and started defending himself and ended up wrestling around with McDuffie, and hitting him back which caused McDuffie to bleed on his face. McDuffie then ran out of the house and got on a bicycle and left. As McDuffie left the yard [VICTIM #1] stated that he then called 911 to report a robbery, and also stated that he was there with [REDACTED BY AGENCY] “A 14 year old Male who is special needs”. [VICTIM #1] stated that he was trying to protect [REDACTED BY AGENCY] from Michael as [REDACTED BY AGENCY] was afraid of Michael.

After McDuffie left the scene on a bicycle, he then returned minutes later in a Jeep along with Cawthon, and Chitwood at which the Tahoe pulled in at the same time with Smith, Franklin, and Clark “according to [REDACTED BY AGENCY]”. [VICTIM #1] stated that he went outside when they all arrived and was then hit in the back of the head from behind with a baseball bat by McDuffie, and then everyone started to beat him, kick him, stomp on him, and used all the stated items above to try and kill him. [REDACTED BY AGENCY] saw the Jeep and Tahoe’s headlights coming up the road and pull into the driveway and saw the men inside the jeep which he was able to identify, and [REDACTED BY AGENCY] took off running out of fear. [REDACTED BY AGENCY] stated that he couldn’t see what was happening to [VICTIM #1] but he could hear it all, and heard them beating him up as [VICTIM #1] was screaming. [REDACTED BY AGENCY] then came out of hiding once he saw all the law enforcement show up.

Lt. Hicks spoke with [REDACTED BY AGENCY] and tried to find out who his parents were and if he knew where they lived, at which he didn’t really know where his mom lived. Lt. Hicks then placed him in the rear seat of his patrol vehicle and Notified Dispatch to get in touch with DFACS. We then asked Dispatch to notify the on call Habersham Sheriff Deputy Criminal Investigator to and request for him to come out to the scene. Investigator Michael Mendenhall #114 was notified, and later arrived on scene. Once he was briefed on the incident occurrences, we then placed all 6 suspects under arrest, in handcuffs, double locked, and placed them all in several patrol vehicles for transport to the Sheriffs Office Detention Center. Approximately 5 minutes after [REDACTED BY AGENCY] got in the patrol vehicle, His Mother [REDACTED] arrived on scene and was identified before turning over over [REDACTED BY AGENCY] to her.

The scene was then turned over to Investigator Mendenhall, which was already secured and taped off with crime scene tape prior to his arrival, along with a Crime scene log notating who came in and out of the crime scene. On Call list wrecker was also called to come pick up the Jeep and the Tahoe, per Mendenhall’s request to seize the vehicles for investigative purposes until he secured a search warrant for them to search for weapons involved in the crime after seeing in plain view, a white baseball bat, and several other blunt objects in the Jeep directly laying behind the rear seat of the Jeep Where McDuffie was in arms length of the weapons, and believed to be involved in the crime.

Budget Towing, and Rameys Towing arrived on scene to load the vehicles up to transport them to the Habersham County Sheriff Office Impound Lot. Upon their arrival, I spoke with both drivers and instructed them not to get inside either vehicle to drive it onto the rollback, and to only hook to them and drag them onto the roll back to preserve integrity of the seized vehicles prior to obtaining the search warrant being that the vehicles were also involved as accessories to the crimes committed. I then advised the drivers, that after they both load the vehicles, to wait for me to follow them to the Habersham Sheriff Impound Lot as I recorded on my dash camera the loading process, through the arrival and unloading process until the Impound Lot gate was closed and locked. Both drivers understood, and did exactly what I advised them without contaminating the vehicles, evidence or integrity of the seizure. After off loading both vehicles, I then printed off both drivers a Towing Impound sheet, and also had them sign a copy for my records. Budget Towing, and Ramey’s Towing both filled out a handwritten bill for their services and gave me a copy to turn into the Sheriff Office to forward to the appropriate department for payment.

Lt. Hicks will have a supplemental report attached to this report, along with Investigator Mendenhall’s report. [VICTIM #1] was transported to North East Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville Georgia due to the severity of his injuries involving a baseball bat and blunt force objects. Investigator Mendenhall also drove to the hospital to follow up with [VICTIM #1] for his investigation. All 6 suspects were released to the Habersham County Detention Center staff without further incident at which an Intent to Charge for was filled out for each suspect charging them each with Aggravated Assault (OCGA 16-5-21 a Felony charge). Mendenhall secured the Warrants for each suspect which are signed by the Judge and have been turned in to the Sheriff Office Detention Center.

[End of Narrative]