Winter Garden Man Screamed "I Killed Him" After Gunning Down Neighbor Over An ATV Complaint

A shouting match over an ATV, then two gunshots

It happened just before 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, at the Bay Pointe Apartments in Winter Garden, Florida. The leasing office manager had called police to complain about a man riding an ATV back and forth near the office, according to the arrest affidavit cited by the Orange Observer.

About a minute later, a second call came in: someone riding an ATV near 1037 Horizon St. had been shot. Witnesses told police they saw Ralph Hensel walk from the leasing office area toward the ATV rider, shouting. Two shots followed.

Hensel then walked back toward the leasing office, telling people nearby, "I killed him," according to the affidavit — the line that gives this story its headline. When officers reached the scene, a nearby resident was already on the ground performing CPR on the man who had been shot. He did not survive.

Hensel surrendered to police at the scene. Officers recovered the gun near the leasing office, and he was held without bond from that point through the start of his trial.

Who was involved

Ja'Keem Williams was 32, riding the ATV that day. He was a father of three children, who were 7, 6 and 2 years old by the time of the November 2026 sentencing, according to FOX 35 Orlando. His youngest child was 11 months old when he was killed.

Ralph Hensel was his neighbor at Bay Pointe. FOX 35 Orlando and Hoodline reported he was 57 at the time of the shooting; the Orange Observer listed him as 59 at sentencing, roughly 21 months later.

Williams' mother, Keisha Roll-McNeal, and Brianna Hernandez, the mother of his three children, both addressed the court at sentencing. State Attorney Monique Worrell and prosecutor Frank George represented the state; attorney Ben Crump has spoken publicly about Hensel's history with ATV riders at the complex.

"You are scum. You are a murderer," — Keisha Roll-McNeal, Ja'Keem Williams' mother, to FOX 35 Orlando

What the court record shows

A grand jury indicted Hensel on first-degree murder — a charge that requires proof the killing was premeditated, according to FOX 35 Orlando. He was held without bond from his arrest through the start of jury selection.

Coverage of the case leading into trial was not consistent on the exact charge. Hoodline noted that while FOX 35 Orlando and WKMG reported a first-degree murder charge, a separate account published by Yahoo described Hensel as facing second-degree murder. The grand jury's indictment, per FOX 35, was first-degree.

Surveillance video was central to how prosecutors described the killing. FOX 35 Orlando reported the footage showed Hensel retrieving a gun, walking across the courtyard, and waiting for Williams before shooting him twice in the back of the head as he rode past. Hoodline's earlier reporting on the affidavit described Hensel walking from the leasing office carrying the firearm and appearing to lie in wait near a nearby building.

On Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, Hensel pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He admitted to the killing in court but, according to the Orange Observer, disputed that it met the legal standard for first-degree — the premeditation element a jury would otherwise have had to weigh.

Hensel asked the judge for a 25-year sentence. On Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, the judge instead sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A year of complaints before the shooting

The shooting followed months of friction over ATV riding at Bay Pointe. Hoodline reported that a Yahoo-published account described seventeen total calls made about ATVs at the complex, eleven of them from a complex employee.

Attorney Ben Crump said Hensel had previously threatened ATV riders at the apartment complex. Per Hoodline's reporting on the investigation, Hensel told officers he would take matters into his own hands if police did not stop people from riding there.

After Tuesday's sentencing, Hensel's family told FOX 35 Orlando they are pursuing a separate case against the apartment complex and its manager, arguing the property shares responsibility for the circumstances that led to Williams' death.

What was said in court

State Attorney Monique Worrell, whose office prosecuted the case, said the sentence holds Hensel accountable without pretending it undoes the loss. "No sentence can bring Ja'Keem back or take away the pain his loved ones will carry for the rest of their lives," she said, per WFTV. "Every homicide leaves behind a family and a neighborhood that will never be the same. My heart is with everyone who loved Ja'Keem."

Williams' mother, Keisha Roll-McNeal, spoke directly to Hensel in court. "You are scum. You are a murderer," she told him, according to FOX 35 Orlando. She described what she said he had taken: "Every hug, every kiss, every time he would be able to tuck his children into bed, you took that from him."

Brianna Hernandez, the mother of Williams' three children, asked why Hensel should get a chance the children never will. "They have been sentenced to a lifetime without him, so why should the person responsible for taking his life be given the opportunity for freedom," she said, per FOX 35 Orlando.

Hensel told the judge he had made peace with prison. "Being in jail, your honor, has actually been a comfort to me," he said, per FOX 35 Orlando. Prosecutor Frank George answered him directly: "He likes being in prison? He likes being in jail. He's he comfortable there? Send him there."

What happens next

The criminal case is closed — Hensel pleaded guilty and a judge has already handed down a life sentence without parole. The thread still open, per FOX 35 Orlando, is the separate civil case Hensel's family says they intend to bring against the Bay Pointe Apartments complex and its manager over the apartment's handling of the ATV disputes before the shooting; no filing date has been reported.