Two years ago, Lawrence Hunt told police he killed his lover, Calvin Williams, because he feared Williams was about to rape him and give him HIV.
If the case had gone to trial, family and friends of both men would have been dragged through a public airing of intimate secrets. Did the 41-year-old Williams have the disease that causes AIDS? Did he hide it from Hunt and other lovers? Did he try to rape Hunt the morning of his death in May 2010?
We may never know. Hunt, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter today, avoiding a trial. He was sentenced to nine years in prison and two years of probation.
Williams was a special-ed teacher at L.C. Swain Middle School in Greenacres. Some of his close friends knew he was gay, but it wasn't something
he openly discussed at school. At the time of his death, he was living with a boyfriend in Riviera Beach.
Hunt lived nearby, in the town of Lake Park. He told police that he met Williams when he was 16 and that they began exchanging blowjobs two years later.
Early on the morning of May 14, Hunt told police he decided to confront Williams. He'd heard rumors the teacher had HIV and demanded to know the truth.
The men fought in Williams' bedroom, shoving and pushing each other. Hunt lunged toward the door. Williams grabbed him in a bear hug. Then he threw Hunt on the bed.
"Are you trying to rape me?" Hunt demanded, according to the probable-cause affidavit. "I know you got that shit. What are you trying to do, give it to me?"
Hunt claimed that Williams tried to pull off his shorts, announcing, "I'm a get that ass."
"Get the fuck back," Hunt shouted.
He shot Williams twice, in the left arm and in the head. Then he fled.
Initially, Hunt pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. He entered his guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter today.
