Winter Garden Killer Gets Life After Calling Jail "A Comfort" In Court

A noise complaint ends in gunfire

Just before 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, the leasing office manager at Bay Pointe Apartments in Winter Garden 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 News. About a minute later, officers got a second call: someone riding an ATV near 1037 Horizon St. had been shot.

Witnesses told police they saw a man, later identified as Ralph Hensel, walk from the leasing office area toward Ja'Keem Williams, shouting at him. Surveillance video presented in court showed Hensel retrieving a gun first, then walking across the courtyard and waiting for Williams to arrive, according to prosecutors cited by FOX 35 Orlando.

Two gunshots followed. Williams was shot twice in the back of the head, FOX 35 reported. Witnesses said Hensel then walked back toward the leasing office saying, "I killed him."

Hensel surrendered to police at the scene. The firearm was recovered near the leasing office, according to the Orange Observer News. A nearby resident was performing CPR on Williams when officers arrived.

Ja'Keem Williams, Ralph Hensel and who spoke for them

Williams was 32, a father of three children who were 7, 6 and 2 years old at the time of his killer's sentencing. His youngest child was just 11 months old when Williams was killed, FOX 35 reported.

Hensel was 57 at the time of the shooting and is now 59, according to the Orange Observer News. He lived in the same apartment complex as Williams.

At sentencing, Williams' mother, Keisha Roll-McNeal, addressed Hensel directly. Brianna Hernandez, the mother of Williams' three children, also spoke about raising them without their father.

State Attorney Monique Worrell and prosecutor Frank George represented the state at the hearing, which WFTV and FOX 35 both described as unusually emotional, with family members allowed to display photographs and signs while addressing Hensel.

"Being in jail, your honor, has actually been a comfort to me," — Ralph Hensel

From a first-degree indictment to a guilty plea

A grand jury initially indicted Hensel on first-degree murder, finding the killing was premeditated, according to FOX 35.

On Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, Hensel pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder. The Orange Observer News reported he told the court he admitted to what he had done but did not agree with the first-degree charge against him.

Through that plea, Hensel asked the court for a 25-year prison sentence, FOX 35 reported.

The next day, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, a judge rejected that request and sentenced Hensel to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Second-degree murder under Florida law does not require proof the killing was planned in advance, the way first-degree murder does — only that it was committed with a depraved mind, without premeditation. Hensel will not be eligible for release.

What was said in court

State Attorney Monique Worrell announced the sentence Tuesday. "No sentence can bring Ja'Keem back or take away the pain his loved ones will carry for the rest of their lives," she told 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, told Hensel directly: "You are scum. You are a murderer," she told FOX 35. She described the moments he would never get back: "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' children, told the court: "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 told FOX 35.

Prosecutor Frank George answered Hensel's own remarks in court directly: "He likes being in prison? He likes being in jail. He's he comfortable there? Send him there," George told FOX 35.

What Hensel actually told the judge

The question in the headline — whether Hensel told the judge a life sentence "doesn't matter" — does not appear as a direct quote in any of the court reporting reviewed for this story. What FOX 35 did report, word for word, is this: "Being in jail, your honor, has actually been a comfort to me," Hensel said.

FOX 35 also reported, in its own language rather than as a direct quote, that Hensel made "several remarks about his willingness to remain behind bars, telling the judge he expected to die in prison." Williams' parents said those remarks showed a lack of remorse.

Whatever the precise wording, the message landed the same way with prosecutors. Frank George's response — "send him there" — treated Hensel's comfort with incarceration as a reason to keep him there, not a reason for leniency.

What happens next

Hensel has already been sentenced to life without parole, which closes the criminal case barring any appeal of the plea or sentence. His family has told reporters they intend to pursue a separate civil case against the Bay Pointe Apartments complex and its manager over how the ATV complaint that preceded the shooting was handled; no civil suit has yet been reported as filed.