A Carroll County woman was lying in bed when she was fatally shot by the mother of her boyfriend’s child, according to court documents filed last week by local prosecutors.
Deputies responding to a reported shooting just after midnight on Thursday, Jan. 23, discovered the body of Sophia Williams, 36, in the back bedroom of a home at 17 County Road 511, according to an affidavit seeking an arrest warrant for 31-year-old Taylor Paige Santiago. Williams’ boyfriend, Nathan Green, 34, had been shot in the cheek and was transported from the scene by ambulance, the affidavit says.
Four children, all under the age of 10, were in the home when the shootings occurred, according to the affidavit.
While they were at the scene, investigator Jeffrey Bilbo of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office received a phone call from Aurora, Mo., police chief Wes Coatney, who advised Bilbo that there had been a murder there as well and that Santiago had turned herself in, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit describes an interview that Aurora police conducted with Santiago, stipulating that the description of that interview is “a summary” and “in no way a verbatim account.”
During the interview with Aurora police, the affidavit says, Santiago said she had killed three people. Santiago said she had first shot Troy Huffman, her estranged husband, in Missouri and then drove Huffman’s Mercedes to Green’s home in Arkansas and shot him and his girlfriend, according to the affidavit. Santiago told Aurora police that she killed Huffman because she needed a vehicle, the affidavit says.
The affidavit says that Santiago told police she had lost sole custody of her daughter and feared she would go to jail because she couldn’t pay child support.
Santiago told Aurora police that she had never been to Green’s “new place” and that she had to use her phone to map the address, the affidavit says. Santiago said that when she arrived, she first knocked on the front door of the mobile home but no one answered, according to the affidavit. She then called and again got no answer, the affidavit says. Santiago said she went to the back door and it was open, the affidavit says. She told police she was in the kitchen when Green confronted her and she shot him, according to the affidavit. She then walked back to the bedroom and shot Williams, the affidavit says.
Santiago said she shot both victims in the head, the affidavit says, and neither made a sound. She told police she didn’t know if either was alive when she left, according to the affidavit.
Santiago told police she used a Taurus .38-caliber revolver that she left on the floorboard of the Mercedes, the affidavit says. She said she reloaded the gun while sitting at a stop sign in Arkansas shortly before she arrived at Green’s home, according to the affidavit.
When a Missouri police investigator asked Santiago what she would say if she could speak to Huffman, Williams or Green, she replied: “Nothing,” the affidavit says. She then clarified that she would say “sorry” to the people who love and care about her and to the people who love and care about the three victims, the affidavit says.
Santiago referred to herself as a “disgusting, evil murderer,” and said that “death or jail forever” would be an appropriate sentence for her, according to the affidavit.
Santiago is charged in Missouri with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, unlawful use of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. She was denied bond at a hearing on Monday, Feb. 3.
Carroll County prosecuting attorney Tony Rogers declined to comment on Monday, Feb. 3.
••• Sophia Williams’ sister, Calista Abernathy, said Monday, Feb. 3, that Santiago got the address on County Road 511 where Williams and Green were shot from court documents in a child custody dispute with Green in Missouri.
“It’s not like they physically told her where they lived,” Abernathy said. “My sister had told me previously that Taylor made her a little nervous. Not saying she was scared but she did say Taylor made her nervous. There was a reason for that.”
Abernathy said she had spoken with her sister on the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 22, and Williams told her that there had been a hearing that day involving custody of the child.
“They had been battling back and forth for a while,” Abernathy said, adding that Green and Williams had moved into the residence on County Road 511 to be closer to Santiago’s residence.
“They were doing everything they were trying to do to work with Taylor and the court, doing their job,” Abernathy said.
Abernathy said Green and Williams had discovered “more evidence of what was going on in the home.” When that evidence was presented to a judge, the judge granted custody to Green, Abernathy said.
“And that night, she snapped,” Abernathy said.
Abernathy said she would like to see a change in the law that would keep parties’ addresses from being listed on court documents in child custody cases, at least temporarily.
“What I would like to see happen when we’re having these custody issues — especially this type where you’re talking about taking kids from a mother, because we know how hard it is, in any state, for a mother to get her rights taken, it’s very hard — so when you’re dealing with these custody battles like that, I think we need to hold off the addresses, at least for the moment,” Abernathy said.
Addresses could be kept private and custody exchanges could be done at a neutral location, Abernathy said.
“Maybe like 30 days after the court makes its decision, then they can know where the kid resides,” Abernathy said. “Just something like that, something to protect.”
Abernathy said she’s been contacted by several people who said they’ve been in fear for their lives because their addresses have been revealed in court documents.
“That needs to change,” she said, “because this, unfortunately, is not the first and it probably won’t be the last.”
Williams had five children, Abernathy said, adding that two of Williams’ sons were with Abernathy over the past weekend.
“They’re doing OK, for what it is,” Abernathy said. “I think they’re still processing. I think they still might be in shock and probably don’t really understand yet.”
Abernathy said she didn’t have details on Green’s condition but that he is expected to survive. She said Green and Williams had been in a relationship for about five years.
A gofundme account has been established for Williams’ children. The account can be found at https://www. gofundme.com/f/ support-sophias-children- after-tragic-loss.
