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Lynnwood Williams: upon being apprehended in 2005

Reported car prowlings over three years(source: Campus Security)

Tacoma police arrested career car prowler Lynwood Williams near campus Oct. 24, ending a string of crime that campus security attributes to him.

While this is great news for students who have been on edge since a wave of car prowlings began in early October, if history repeats itself, the sense of security will be short lived. Williams has been arrested four times since 2000 for breaking into vehicles near the University of Washington Tacoma, spending less than a year in jail for each arrest.

“Every time he’s off the street, the prowlings pretty much stop,” said Darren Bailey, campus security sergeant. “During one stint, there were 94 car prowlings that we know he was responsible for.”

Williams was last arrested in June for breaking into a car parked in a UWT lot. According to court records, a UWT campus security guard chased and subdued Williams after spotting him smash the car’s window and steal a cell phone. Upon being subdued, Williams admitted to the theft and said to the security guard that he “had to support my habit.”

Williams was charged with third degree theft and bail was set at $2,500. After posting bail on Aug. 25, Williams failed to appear at his plea hearing Oct. 10 and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. Police caught up to him Oct. 24, and Williams is currently being held on $10,000 bail for the Aug. 25 break-in. No new charges have been filed as of press time.

There is a long history of Williams eluding lengthy sentences for his crimes. After being arrested and charged with three offenses relating to breaking into a vehicle in January 2005, Williams had the two most serious charges dropped in exchange for pleading guilty to possession of stolen property.

Although he could have faced up to five years in prison, Williams only received five months and was ordered to pay $1110 in restitutions and court fees. Court documents show that his account was turned over to a collection agency six months later for delinquency. Williams never paid a single dollar towards his restitutions.

The same was true for his other two convictions for possession of stolen property.

If convicted this time, Williams will have a total of seven felonies on his record, including one for assault with a deadly weapon. While campus security remains hopeful that Williams’ sentence will be strict this time, they are ready for anything.

“We’ve done everything we could in the past to keep this guy locked up. We’ve helped build an extensive court case against him, but he keeps getting released. Hopefully he’ll go away for a long time this time, but we’re ready if that doesn’t happen,” Bailey said.

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