DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Prosecutors and defense attorneys made their opening statements Wednesday morning, and several witnesses in the case began testimony in the 1999 cold case where a metro Atlanta mother is accused of being involved in her son's death.
Teresa Black is charged with two counts of felony murder, two counts of cruelty to children, aggravated assault, and concealing the death of another in connection with the 1999 death of her son, William Dashawn Hamilton. The little boy's body was discovered in 1999, but the investigation went cold for years until detectives said a friend, who testified on Tuesday, recognized a rendering of a 6-year-old version of him. This led investigators to confirm his ID through DNA testing.
Although several witnesses testified, including investigators who found William's body, Black's best friend delivered a heartbreaking testimonial.
"He was fun, he was smart. He was a four-year-old that could read the encyclopedia. He liked trucks," said Ava McNeil, Black's best friend, who described William when he was younger.
McNeil said she was best friends with Black when they all lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the late 90s. McNeil claimed in her testimony that Black did not regularly bathe William and seemed detached and standoffish toward her son before moving with him to Atlanta in 1998.
McNeil remembers the day Black decided to move to Atlanta with her son and found the sudden change odd at first. She had concerns about the move and began raising some questions. After the move, McNeil said she saw Black a few times but never saw William again. She suddenly questioned Black about his whereabouts and started to suspect something was wrong.
"Horrible, sad, scared," McNeil explained when she found out that something might have happened to William.
Just a few months later, the boy's body was found in the woods off Clifton Road in Decatur, but investigators could not identify his remains for decades.
McNeil never stopped looking for William. She searched social media and missing reports for years until she finally found the rendered photo of William.
Here are the opening statements the prosecution made before the witness testimony:
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The state alleges Black killed her son by giving him too much cold medication and then dumping his body in the woods.
Defense attorneys argue the boy's death was an accident.
Watch the opening statements of the defense in the case below:
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Court recessed for the day and witness testimony will continue on Thursday.
More on the Case:
According to DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, Black moved with her son to the Atlanta area in December 1998 from Charlotte.
William, for 23 years, was only known by investigators as Clifton Doe, a reference to his body being found in a wooded area near a cemetery off of the intersection of Clifton Springs and Clifton Church roads near a church cemetery.
A grand jury later indicted Black in 2022.
According to a previous indictment record, she is accused of causing her son's death by giving him "a substance or substances containing Diphenhydramine and Acetaminophen."
In addition to allegedly giving her child those medicines, the mother is accused of striking him in the head with an unknown object. The indictment also alleges she failed to seek medical treatment for him and concealed his death.
The mother never reported her son missing, nor did anyone else, resulting in the inability to connect the remains found in 1999 to the child.
11Alive previously learned that the mother had a prior manslaughter conviction in the Charlotte area and served one year in prison for the charge from 1994 until 1995.
After she was charged, Black was taken into custody near her home in Phoenix, Arizona and extradited to Georgia.