Jury Finds 18-Year-Old Man Guilty In Winder Village Double Murder

After roughly 30 witnesses and two weeks of trial, a jury found two men guilty in connection to a Bristol Township shooting that killed Zyisean “Ziggy” McDuffie, 19, and Tommy Ballard, 19, outside a home in the 900 block Elmhurst Avenue on the evening of Friday, May 4, 2018.

The jury returned Friday morning after deliberating for a bit more than a day and found Joseph Williams, 18, of Bristol Township, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and attempted homicide. Gary Goddard, 49, of Bristol Township’s Croydon section, was found guilty of attempted homicide.

Both men will be sentenced at a later date. The two were taken by sheriff’s deputies from the courtroom in the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown and transported to the Bucks County Correctional Facility without bail.

The trial was overseen by Bucks County Judge Alan Rubenstein.

During the trial, protectors said Williams, who had past run-ins with the law, fired the shots from a .38 caliber revolver that led to the deaths of McDuffie and Ballard. His defense worked to raise questions about his involvement.

Goddard’s defense made the case that he fired at the men out of concern his son was in danger after a scuffle broke out.

A long-simmering dispute between groups of young people from the township’s Bloomsdale-Fleetwing and Winder Village sections played a role in the shooting.

Goddard’s son, also named Gary, and Williams were on one side of the argument and McDuffie, Ballard and Jahmier Wilson, also known as Man Montana, were on the other. Wilson was not shot.

The double-fatal shooting ripped through Winder Village as families and friends gathered outside taking pictures before Harry S. Truman High School’s sophomore and junior prom.

McDuffie was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital. He suffered five gunshot wounds and bled out after a bullet nicked an artery near his kidney. Ballard was hit by two bullets and died from a wound to his liver and kidney.

Bullets fired by Williams were found to have caused the deaths. A shot fired by Goddard ended up in the head of McDuffie but did not kill him.

In addition to the roughly 30 people who testified, including Goddard, there was a gripping 20-minute police dashcam video that showed the aftermath of a 2018 shooting played in court.

Rubenstein, the former county district attorney, said during trial that the feud between the Bloomsdale-Fleetwing and Winder Village sections has been going on for decades and needs to end to prevent more pain.

Williams made headlines when he was 14 after his mother made waves after she alleged cops in Tullytown assaulted the boy after a traffic stop. Amid a crush of media attention, an investigation by Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI cleared Tullytown police of wrongdoing.