Mom’s prayer answered: Augusta brothers, cousin cleared of Texas death

MESQUITE, Texas (WRDW/WAGT) - Charges have been dropped against three Augusta men who’d been accused in the death of a security guard after a scuffle at a Texas gym.

Xzaviour Williams, 20, Darius Williams, 26, and their cousin Cameron Walton, 26, were arrested in late January in connection with the death of Patrick Prejean, 43, from Dallas.

According to Williams family attorney Bruce Anton and news reports from Texas, the grand jury returned a “no bill” – meaning it failed to find probable cause for murder charges.

That’s a huge relief to the Williams’ mother, Keisha.

“I’m a praying mother,” she told News 12 on Tuesday. “I thank God for these boys that they dropped the charges.”

According to authorities, Prejean died at a hospital after a Jan. 22 fight over a basketball game at the Fitness Connection in the 2000 block of North Town East Boulevard in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite.

A medical examiner ruled the manner of death a homicide but said the cause was the psychological stress of a physical altercation while suffering hypertensive cardiovascular disease and morbid obesity, according to news reports.

The grand jury’s decision lifts a huge weight off the shoulders of Keisha Williams.

She said she watched video of the fight, which convinced her: “These boys were innocent.”

As she worried for her sons and Walton, “I stayed in God’s word and humbled myself,” she said.

It’s been a tough past few years for her. After battling breast cancer, she relentlessly worked to make sure authorities didn’t give up on finding her missing cousin Tyrone Hughes, who vanished in 2018.

On Jan. 13, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office confirmed her worst fears: Remains that had been discovered in 2019 were those of Hughes.

Then the fight happened on the same night the family buried Hughes.

Williams said she hardly had time to grieve her cousin because she was working so hard to clear the names of her sons and Walton, who’s like a son to her.

“Now I can grieve and I can speak for justice,” she said.

“I’ve been through so much but God has continued to lift me.”

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