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Left: Eric Kyle Hooper (Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office). Right: LaChancey Williams (Smith & Miller Funeral Home).
A Georgia man who was accused of shooting another man dead in Alabama and then stuffing his body in a toolbox has been found guilty of murder.
Eric Kyle Hooper, 31, was convicted in Alabama by a Cherokee County jury on Jan. 23, years after he was arrested for the 2022 murder of LaChancey Williams, 40. A press release from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office stated that a fingerprint found at the scene connected Hooper to Williams. The story made local news for the grisly nature of how Williams’ body was found — wrapped in a tarp, stuffed inside a large, plastic toolbox that was dumped on the side of a rural Georgia road.
On the morning of March 15, 2022, public works employees on the job in Polk County, Georgia, came across the toolbox and opened it up, finding the body of Williams inside. They notified police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who determined that the victim had suffered two fatal shotgun wounds.
According to police, the GBI investigation concluded that the murder took place in Alabama, at which point the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office took over the case. Investigators eventually tracked down Hooper, whose fingerprint was on the duct tape found on Williams’ body. Eyewitness statements also pointed to Hooper, who was arrested on April 14, 2022 after being extradited from Georgia.
Jurors heard testimony from Hooper as well as “numerous witnesses,” and the trial concluded on Jan. 17. They returned their verdict days later, on Jan. 23.
A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Feb. 7. Hooper faces a sentence from 10 years to life for Williams’ murder.
An obituary for Williams said that he left behind five children and a number of other relatives and “would give you the shirt off of his back.”
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office noted a milestone that came with Hooper’s conviction: the county now has no pending intentional murder cases.
“The community can rest well with the knowledge that there are dedicated public servants who devote their time and interest to making sure our citizens are safe,” District Attorney Summer Summerford said in a statement.