A yearslong investigation by homicide detectives led to a one-count murder complaint being filed Friday against their first and only publicly identified suspect since the start of the investigation.
The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office has accused Vicent John Williams, 45, of shooting and killing Devin Marshall, 37, who was found murdered in his own SUV near Williams’ home on Masters Cup Way.
The criminal complaint alleges Williams intentionally fired a gun at Marshall with violent intent and cites an escalating criminal history.
Williams was assigned a cell Sunday at Men’s Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles, according to L.A. County Sheriff’s Department custody records found online.
Suspected opportunity
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies arrested Williams for the first time hours after the murder.
There were four homicide detectives initially detailed to the grizzly scene that greeted deputies who responded to the initial call just before 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2023.
Deputies found Marshall barely alive in the driver’s seat of his Toyota Rav4, after he was shot multiple times in the upper torso, according to the medical examiner’s report and court records.
As detectives descended on the scene, deputies rendered first aid to Marshall and personnel from Fire Station 124 on Hemingway Avenue in Stevenson Ranch took the gunshot victim to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, where he died from his wounds about three hours later.
“Through witness interviews, investigators learned (Vicent) Williams … was seen standing in the street shortly after the sound of gunshots were heard. Suspect Williams was seen watching victim Marshall’s vehicle slowly roll away, then walking toward his own truck … and then into his home. Suspect Williams was seen entering his vehicle and driving away from the scene,” according to part of the sworn statement of probable cause a cold-case detective gave in October 2025.
On the afternoon of the early-morning murder, a neighbor interviewed by deputies told them he was inside his home when he heard three gunshots, which woke him up and prompted him to look out his window.
From the second floor, he could see the Rav4 rolling slowly with no lights on, and then saw Williams walking away from the vehicle and toward his own truck, which was in his garage, according to investigators’ account of the interview. The witness then reported seeing Williams reverse his own truck out of his garage and then park it on the street, near the intersection of Masters Cup Way and Vista Fairways Drive. Williams then got out and went back inside his home, according to the witness statements in the detective’s affidavit.
Surveillance footage mentioned in Detective Gregory Richardson’s probable-cause statement also purports to show the suspect and victim walking alongside each other, from several different angles, in the moments before the murder.
A Sheriff’s Department report notes that as detectives were processing the scene that morning, Williams returned again in his truck, at the south end of the crime scene, near Trevino Way and Vista Parkway Drive, where he was detained and ultimately arrested.
The day of the murder, detectives searched Williams’ home and found an empty “Glock” handgun case on the closet shelf and a magazine on the floor.
Ultimately, then-District Attorney George Gascón’s office declined to file a murder charge, citing insufficient evidence, and Williams was released.
Alleged motive
In September 2025, an L.A. County Superior Court judge ultimately authorized a forensic search of Williams’ phone found the day of the murder. Investigators refer to the iCloud backup as a critical tool for investigators in their request to access evidence.
There was no indication given as to what had changed in the investigation during the September 2025 search-warrant request, but by this point, the case had been transferred to a unit that specializes in “unsolved cases,” according to court records.
Detectives also request the digital records from phone and computer activity for the victim, Devin Marshall.
In a request to search these devices, detectives mentioned a conversation with Vicent Williams’ father, John Williams, who told him “the guy from last week was threatening to kill him and his family,” according to the court record.
“Suspect Williams told John Williams that he ‘lost it’ and asked his father to secure his residence (on Masters Cup Way),” according to the search warrant.
The defendant’s cousin told detectives that Vicent Williams was in a fight the week before the shooting, on Christmas Eve. Marshall was one of the people who helped break up the fight, and punched Williams in the process. Williams also lost his phone in the confrontation.
The cousin mentioned that she and her husband arranged to meet Marshall, who had recovered his phone.
When Williams was interviewed about the incident, he “invoked his Miranda rights,” according to Richardson’s report.
New developments
Detectives have declined to state what’s changed in their investigation since Williams’ Aug. 11 arrest, his second in connection with this murder.
On July 24, the LASD Homicide Bureau released a picture of Marshall and a screenshot of surveillance footage they said shows their suspect, not identifying the person as Williams in the alert, only as “suspect.”
Homicide officials have not put out any official information in connection to the 3-year-old case.
When homicide investigators were asked about Williams, they said he had previously been cleared, but detectives were “looking for more evidence.”
Williams is due in Department S in the San Fernando Courthouse on Aug. 28 to answer to the charge.
He remains in custody in lieu of $3 million bail as of the publication of this story.
Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tips may be submitted through Crime Stoppers by calling (800) 222-TIPS (8477), using P3 Tips mobile app, or visiting lacrimestoppers.org.
