Tavares, FL — The State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit will seek the death penalty against Kimberly Mills, 37, and her boyfriend Andre Walker, 36, both charged in the prolonged torture and killing of Mills’s 10-year-old son, Xavier Williams. State Attorney Bill Gladson announced the decision on Thursday, April 3, 2025, moments after a Lake County grand jury returned indictments for first-degree murder, felony first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and related counts.
A months-long pattern of torture
Investigators say the abuse began on Dec. 24 and continued through Feb. 20. According to Tavares police, the couple used a dumbbell, boxing gloves, flashlights and a copper rod to strike the child, at times duct-taping him to a ladder and dropping 10-pound weights on him while his hands were bound above his head.
On Feb. 22, Mills and Walker carried the unconscious boy into Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. He was air-lifted from Tavares and arrived “in critical condition and they were not sure if he was going to survive,” a TPD arrest affidavit states. Hospital staff documented bruises and burns in various stages of healing; Detective Doug Roberts later testified the child had “Internal bleeding in his stomach area and with the raccoon eyes, they said it was possible with head trauma,” He said.
Roberts interviewed Xavier’s younger brother, who described punishments that escalated from the living room to the garage. “He stated that [his brother] was being punished in the living room, and then after that, he was taken into the garage by Andre, who he also said was mom’s boyfriend,” Roberts said. “He was taken into the garage and punished further by Andre in the garage.”
When a prosecutor asked whether the younger sibling had been punished the same way, Roberts replied, “Yes.”
Detective Courtney Sullivan told the court that officers recovered a dense copper wire believed to be another weapon. “I learned later it was used as a form of so-called discipline against the boys,” Sullivan said. Asked how it was used, she answered, “Hitting the boys through spanking and, I believe, on their head as well.”
Police believe Mills, a registered nurse, was “methodical” in concealing the injuries, insisting the children wear long sleeves to school and allegedly returning home for a “hasty” cleanup after dropping Xavier at the hospital, a job investigators said “did a really bad job” of hiding evidence.
Xavier never regained consciousness and died of cardiac arrest on March 21 after four weeks in intensive care.
Courtroom developments
Mills and Walker skipped their initial arraignments, filing written not-guilty pleas through newly hired private attorneys. Defense lawyer Bryanna Bynum argued there is “no evidence that Mr. Walker took part in any of that abuse,” calling the injuries “tragic” but attacking the state’s reliance on the younger brother’s account as hearsay.
Walker’s estranged wife, Nastassja Walker, testified for the defense, saying she had never feared for the safety of their two children and offered, with Walker’s parents, to post a $5,000 bond.
Judge Brian Welke refused. “The court finds there is a substantial probability that the defendant committed the offenses as charged,” he ruled. “Also, the nature and circumstances of the offenses and the nature of the injuries to [the boy], which are egregious.”
Family grief and search for justice
Outside the courthouse, Xavier’s aunt, Cameil Williams, confronted the absence of both defendants. “You took away a young child. You took him away from his father. You took him away from his brother,” Williams said. “For her I really don’t know how she did that, knowing that you are the one that is supposed to protect your child.”
Xavier’s father, who lives in Connecticut and divorced Mills years earlier, told WESH 2 News that she had cut off contact about three weeks before the boy was rushed to the hospital. The family is arranging therapy for the surviving brother, “showering him with love,” his aunt said, while preparing for Xavier’s funeral on April 26 in Connecticut.
Ongoing investigation
Tavares Police said both suspects continue to refuse cooperation, and detectives expect additional charges. “Those pictures show that there is prolonged abuse to that child,” Bynum countered in court, “There is no evidence that Mr. Walker took part in any of that abuse.”
For prosecutors, the evidence, weights, wires, medical charts and the younger brother’s statement, underpins a capital case now moving toward trial. As Gladson put it when announcing the death-penalty filing, Florida will seek the severest punishment the law allows for the systematic torture and killing of a 10-year-old boy.
Pattern of Harm 
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