Carl Williams appeared in Cumberland County Superior Court on Thursday to plead not guilty to killing his cellmate at the Windham Correctional Facility in 2022. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

A man charged with killing his prison cellmate was restored to competency after two years in limbo and pleaded not guilty to a murder charge Thursday morning.

Carl Williams, 40, entered a not guilty plea during a brief appearance before Cumberland County Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy. He also waived his right to a competency hearing.

Renaldo Jones Photo courtesy of Franklin Jones

Defense attorney Henry Griffin told the judge that Williams “does not feel he has a competency issue and does not wish to pursue that issue.”

Williams is accused of killing Renaldo Jones, who was Williams’ cellmate at the Windham Correctional Facility. Jones was 30 when he died on May 10, 2022, at Maine Medical Center, where he had been unresponsive for four months after Williams allegedly assaulted him.

Williams was serving multiple sentences at the time, including a four-year stint for deliberately hitting another vehicle with a pickup truck, according to the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office.

After he was indicted on the murder charge in June 2022, Williams failed to make his first appearance in court. A Maine State Prison employee told Murphy at the time that Williams had not engaged with anyone since being transferred to the facility after the assault. The judge said during that hearing that she was concerned about his mental state and asked for regular checks on him.

Murphy determined Thursday, after reviewing a doctor’s report, that Williams’ competency had been restored and he is able to proceed to trial. If convicted, Williams faces a sentence of at least 25 years in prison. Williams’ file was still with the judge and a copy of that report was not available.

Williams will continue to be held without bail in a special housing unit at the Maine State Prison in Warren.

Jones had one year left at the Windham prison on a theft conviction when he was assaulted. After learning he was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury, his family members came to Maine from Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Massachusetts for as long as they could. After they had to return home, they monitored his health on Zoom calls and watched for signs of recovery.

Relatives told the Press Herald that Jones was the kind of person who stood up for others and that his stint behind bars stemmed from his long-running struggle with substance use disorder. His family said he had hoped to make a fresh start after prison and move to Massachusetts to become a licensed wastewater operator like his brother.

“He just had all these hopes of doing his time and coming home and trying to do better,” his sister Julia Moreno said in 2022. “He just didn’t deserve this at all. Nobody does.”