‘He sold me a dream.’ Ex-girlfriend links Granville Ritchie to 9-year-old murder victim.
https://outline.com/XBVgzS
September 16, 2019
TAMPA — Eboni Wiley met Granville Ritchie just a few days before 9-year-old Felecia Williams went missing.
She and Ritchie had a budding romance that began when he spotted her walking along an east Tampa street one day in May 2014. He pulled up alongside her in his silver Lexus. He asked how old she was, said he wanted to make sure she wasn’t too young. Then he asked for her number. They chatted. Later that night, he picked her up and they went to his Temple Terrace apartment. Ritchie charmed her with talk of a wealthy future. They took Ecstasy. They had sex.
“He sold me a dream,” Wiley said Monday on the witness stand. Days later, the dream morphed into a nightmare.
Wiley, now 29, is the star witness in the trial of Ritchie, the man now accused of raping and killing the 9-year-old girl. Wiley is also the one who prosecutors say delivered Felecia to him.
[...]
She was gone for about 50 minutes, paying a dealer $20 for a baggie of marijuana. But when she returned to the Doral Oaks apartment complex in Ritchie’s car, Wiley said that she couldn’t get through the front gate. The entry code he gave her didn’t work.
She called Ritchie to check on the girl. He told her he gave Felecia money and sent her to buy candy at a nearby CVS store, Wiley said.
So Wiley drove to CVS to try to find Felecia. But the clerk had not seen the girl.
Worried, Wiley drove back to the apartment. A neighbor let her through the gate. When she pulled up outside, Wiley testified, she found Ritchie shirtless, sweating and pacing. He seemed panicked, she said. She told him to calm down.
[...]
It wasn’t until the next night, when police told her that Felecia’s body was found floating off the Courtney Campbell Causeway, that Wiley told the truth.
Wiley was charged with lying during a missing person investigation. Five years later, that charge is still pending. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison. She told the jury the state had promised no leniency in exchange for her testimony.
[...]
https://outline.com/XBVgzS
September 16, 2019
TAMPA — Eboni Wiley met Granville Ritchie just a few days before 9-year-old Felecia Williams went missing.
She and Ritchie had a budding romance that began when he spotted her walking along an east Tampa street one day in May 2014. He pulled up alongside her in his silver Lexus. He asked how old she was, said he wanted to make sure she wasn’t too young. Then he asked for her number. They chatted. Later that night, he picked her up and they went to his Temple Terrace apartment. Ritchie charmed her with talk of a wealthy future. They took Ecstasy. They had sex.
“He sold me a dream,” Wiley said Monday on the witness stand. Days later, the dream morphed into a nightmare.
Wiley, now 29, is the star witness in the trial of Ritchie, the man now accused of raping and killing the 9-year-old girl. Wiley is also the one who prosecutors say delivered Felecia to him.
[...]
She was gone for about 50 minutes, paying a dealer $20 for a baggie of marijuana. But when she returned to the Doral Oaks apartment complex in Ritchie’s car, Wiley said that she couldn’t get through the front gate. The entry code he gave her didn’t work.
She called Ritchie to check on the girl. He told her he gave Felecia money and sent her to buy candy at a nearby CVS store, Wiley said.
So Wiley drove to CVS to try to find Felecia. But the clerk had not seen the girl.
Worried, Wiley drove back to the apartment. A neighbor let her through the gate. When she pulled up outside, Wiley testified, she found Ritchie shirtless, sweating and pacing. He seemed panicked, she said. She told him to calm down.
[...]
It wasn’t until the next night, when police told her that Felecia’s body was found floating off the Courtney Campbell Causeway, that Wiley told the truth.
Wiley was charged with lying during a missing person investigation. Five years later, that charge is still pending. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison. She told the jury the state had promised no leniency in exchange for her testimony.
[...]
