(Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Cory Ray Williams guilty of 2019 carjacking in Lethbridge, vehicle theft in Fort Macleod

Jul 29, 2021 | 11:20 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A local man has been found guilty on several charges, stemming from a series of incidents in October 2019.

Cory Ray Williams, 42, was convicted Thursday in Lethbridge Provincial Court of kidnapping, assault with a weapon, flight from police, dangerous driving, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, robbery, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Around 11:00 pm on October 20, 2019, Williams and his brother got into a dispute at their home on 5 Ave North in Lethbridge, resulting in Cory threatening his sibling with a machete.

By the time police arrived at the residence, he had left and walked towards the nearby McDonalds.

A man was inside his vehicle in the area when Williams forcibly got inside. He held the machete to the man’s throat and told him to throw his phone on the ground and drive.

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Williams made the man take him to a downtown bank ATM where he withdrew a small amount of cash.

They then proceeded to the Supervised Consumption Site where Williams spoke to a person about drugs. The person got inside the vehicle and the three people took a lap around the block, at which point, Williams had made a transaction and the dealer got out.

Williams ordered the driver to head towards the Blood Reserve, later instructing him to turn off of Highway 509 onto a dirt road and told him to get out of the vehicle and walk a short distance without looking back.

The driver did as he was directed. He heard a hat fall to the ground and Williams got back into the vehicle and tried to run him over with it.

The man was able to avoid the vehicle, which then sped off onto the highway.

Court was told that the man walked onto Highway 509 and tried to flag somebody down to pick him up. A few people in a pickup truck pulled over, and as the man got into their truck, Williams drove by again, heading towards Fort Macleod.

Police officers from Standoff tried to pursue Williams. Members of Fort Macleod RCMP clocked him travelling at approximately 200 km/hr.

The people in the pickup truck drove the victim to Blood Tribe Police, where he was able to make a statement and again at Lethbridge Police Service. On the way to Lethbridge, however, the man directed BTP to the dirt road where he had been made to pull over and the officers picked up the fallen hat. DNA from it was matched to Cory Ray Williams.

Officers were able to ping the man’s cell phone, which was still in the vehicle Williams was driving, to an empty residence in Fort Macleod.

Williams had abandoned the vehicle on the side of the road, later stealing a different vehicle from a house in the area. It was found the following day in Lethbridge.

In the final incident before being arrested, the judge ruled that all evidence presented was circumstantial and was not enough to formally connect Williams to it. It was alleged that Williams had again tried to force his way into a vehicle where a driver was already inside and force him to drive around. The victim in this case was able to disarm the perpetrator and get him away from the vehicle.

For the proceeding events, the judge came to the conclusion that the only reasonable inference is that they were perpetrated by Williams, declaring him guilty on seven counts but not guilty to the two counts relating to the final incident.

A date for sentencing has not yet been set.

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