HIV-positive man knowingly infected teens and women, authorities say

Jet, Nov 17, 1997

A 20-year-old man in Mayville, NY, is suspected of infecting at least nine teenagers and women with the AIDS virus.

Officials say Nushawn Williams had sex with 28 women and infected at least nine of them with the AIDS virus in rural Chautauqua County, located 70 miles south of Buffalo in upstate New York. His sex partners may have later infected more than 70 other people, officials say.

At JET press time, Williams was being held at Riker's Island jail in New York City after he was arrested on unrelated drug charges. He is also charged with the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, whom he also allegedly infected with the AIDS virus.

Officials said Williams provided the teens and women with drugs in exchange for sex. He did not tell his sex partners that he was HIV positive, officials said.

Chautauqua County Health Commissioner Dr. Robert Berke said, "This is a young man who liked to lurk around the edges of parks and pick out young ladies who may be in a risk-taking mode."

He learned he was HIV positive in September 1996; however, he continued to have unprotected sex with women and teens, officials said.

Authorities began to investigate the case last summer when several young people in the area went to the local health department for AIDS tests and said Williams was their sexual partner.

District Attorney James Subjack said he is pursuing charges of reckless endangerment and first degree assault against Williams for each person he allegedly infected.

Williams gave investigators the names of between 50 and 70 women he had sex with in New York City, officials said.

Several of the young women who had sex with Williams appeared on "The Montel Williams Show."

One woman, Amber Arnold, said she did not blame Williams for having sex with women, herself included, without telling them he was infected with HIV.

She plans to visit him in prison.

"It's not only his fault," she said. "Any one of these girls could have told him to put on a condom, and he would have done it because that's the kind of man he was."

Arnold and the other women are living in fear that they might test positive for AIDS.