Rhonda Wilkerson, a 50-year-old resident of Flagler Beach accused of raping her own daughter and participating in her boyfriend’s multiple rapes of her daughter over months in late 2013 and early 2014, on Monday pleaded guilty to one count of rape on a child between 12 and 18 years old and one count of principal to rape by threat. The first-degree felonies expose Wilkerson to between 25 and 50 years in prison when she is sentenced on May 6, according to State Attorney’s Office spokesman Spencer Hathaway.
Wilkerson is expected to testify against her former boyfriend, William Clarence Dillow, 28, when he goes on trial on April 20. Dillow faces two capital felony counts of raping a child younger than 12, a count of rape by threat, and a count of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child older than 12. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Wilkerson and Dillow are being held without bond at the St. Johns County jail, and are going through circuit court in St. Johns—before Judge Michael Traynor—as the alleged attacks took place in St. Augustine. Wilkerson and her children lived on South Daytona Avenue in Flagler Beach, and the children attended an elementary school in the Flagler district, where they reported the alleged attacks on Feb. 24, the last of which allegedly had taken place that very morning, according to Dillow’s arrest report.
After the children reported the alleged attacks, Wilkerson was informed, and she went to the Flagler Beach Police Department, where she provided a statement outlining what had taken place since the previous summer. A controlled phone call was set up between Wilkerson and Dillow in which Dillow admitted to certain acts, but also implicated Wilkerson. When, during the call, she told him that they would stop having sex with one of the children, his reply was, “I will if you will.” Wilkerson told police she also had recordings of the alleged acts.
Combined with an outline of the interviews with the children a member of the Child Protection Team conducted, the allegation tell an account of two young girls in the grips of harrowing brutality, torture, sadism, lies and threats allegedly at the hands of Dillow, but often aided by a complicit Wilkerson. She told authorities that Dillow had forced her to participate.
Though the charges make a distinction in the age of the victims, and therefore the category of the charges the suspects face, the two suspects’ arrest reports list both victims as being younger than 12. The rapes took place “multiple times over a period of several months” at 3710 Pacetti Road in St. Augustine, mostly in an RV on the property, according to details not disclosed at the time of the arrests.
Wilkerson had begun seeing Dillow in September 2013. As the relationship wore on, Dillow, according to Wilkerson, began accusing her of cheating, then accusing her of sexually abusing one of her daughters—what turned out to be a ploy to begin what Wilkerson described as his abuse of the girls. Dillow told her that he’d “researched signs of sexual abuse,” the arrest report states, and ordered Wilkerson to take pictures of her daughter’s genital areas and email them to him. (Wilkerson’s Flagler Beach home was 49 miles from Dillow’s.) The girl recalled the incident in her interview with the Child Protection Team case coordinator, remembering that her mother had taken her into a bathroom at her grandmother’s house and told her that the pictures were to be sent off to a doctor to check if she had cancer.
The alleged abuse then soon escalated, with Dillow claiming to the child that he had to examine her. The girl protested, telling him, “I am too young to see this,” and telling either Dillow or the interviewer that she neither understood why they had to be naked nor wanted to see Dillow naked. Before long, Dillow was telling her that he’d be showing her “how a boy gets you pregnant,” and telling her that “a girl your age, your hormones are going to start kicking in and you are going to want to do it.” The victim protested, refused and told him off. But the victim told the interviewer that if she didn’t perform form him, he’d get angry and would hurt her, her sister or her mother.
The first rape allegedly took place in January 2014 in the RV, as Dillow’s grandfather lived in the nearby trailer on the property. Wilkerson describes her daughter vomiting from fear, and multiple instances occurring after that, with Wilkerson’s participation despite the girls’ protests as Dillow would force himself on one of the girls orally and vaginally. One of the girl would not be present during the attacks, her sister told an interviewer, because “apparently it is too gruesome for [her] to be there,” the arrest report quotes her as saying, though the younger girl described him repeatedly attacking her as well. When a girl refused to participate, Dillow threatened, “you want to see the effect if you don’t do it?” then proceeded to punch Wilkerson on the head and punch her again in the neck.
Dillow allegedly threatened to kill either girl or their mother if anyone told on him, and said that even if he were to go to jail, he would have them killed anyway.
The brutality included an occasion, just two days before the girls reported the alleged assaults, when Dillow bought a BB gun at a flea market and shot one of the girls to “see how it felt.” He then shot the dog with the gun and wanted to continue doing so, but one of the girls got between Dillow and the dog. Dillow threatened to shoot the girl in the face, according to his arrest report, because she was crying. The same day, the report describes Dillow’s alleged attempt to suffocate one of the girls, pinching her nose and covering her mouth so she could not breathe. The girl would “struggle to get out of Williams’ grip but William would not let go,” the report states, noting that the girl had witnessed him doing the same to her sister. She said her mother would “go with the flow.”
In the protective team’s interview with the younger child, the child described Dillow as “mean, stupid and an ass,” and that Dillow “freaks her out.” She said he also “puts her head in trash cans,” and she described him shooting her with a BB gun.
Dillow and Wilkerson were arrested on Feb. 25, 2014, three days after the BB gun incident, and a day after Dillow allegedly last attacked one of the girls. The children were remanded to the custody of the Department of Children and Families at the time of the arrests.
Grace says
Is this an episode of the X Files ? Where is Scully & Mulder ? Why are these sub-humans still breathing ?
Rich says
sicko’s
Anonymous says
Is this mother all there? I can’t believe she is actually SMILING in this picture! Both of these sickies should be put away for a long LONG time and any property either one of them owns, and anything either one of them ever has, should be forfeited into a guardianship trust set up for these girls so that they might have a chance at a better future…Far FAR away from either one of these offenders. I hope the DA will not cut a deal for this “mother” (I put that word in quotes for a reason) that will allow her any freedom (or, God forbid, access to any children) any time in the near future…IF ever.
Livesinpalmcoast says
People are sick, throw them in jail and burn the key….. Prayers for these children….
Because I Can says
Hope they get theirs in prison.
PalmCoaster says
This was the most difficult thing I think I -ever- read. These people should be under the jail, not in it. I am still sick from reading this. How will these two be allowed to exist. Dear God in heaven.
Crow Eater says
You can’t actually burn the key, you would have to melt it at 1200 degrees farenheit.
Michael says
Jail is to good for these two, there needs to be real justice served here and unfortunatly the system cannot provide this, The only hope of justice is that when he arrives in prison and they find out what he did, then he becomes the little girl in prison and karma kicks in.
ryan says
I hope some idiot doesnt try the mental illness cop out. I am getting so sick of evil being called religious BS and calling it mental instability. These 2 are pure evil. The mom knows what she did and is just as guilty as he is. Some are wired wrong right out of the womb. I just hope the system doesn’t assign them therapy and medication as an alternative to prison. Pedophiles should be killed and maybe one day we will actually follow through with our concern to protect innocent children and either give pedophiles life without parole or immunity to anyone who hurts these sickos
common sense says
Death penalty for such offenders. I mean, conviction, walk to death row and commence. Not, death penalty followed by 20 years of appeals and 2 million in tax payer money. Plain and simple.
Sherry Epley says
Tragic, horrific. . . my heart goes out to those children. They have been through the worst kind of hell. How will they ever heal from this kind of torture and pain? Who will guide them through to anything close to a healthy happy adulthood? Who will provide the love and understanding they will need. . . also the money for the years of psychological counseling needed to bring them back from hell and into a place that they will ever trust anyone ever again? Certainly the DCF does not have the resources for that kind of care.
Yes, absolutely, the woman that gave birth to them and her partner in crimes should be punished for what they have done! These people are the definition of those who should have never been near any child. . . much less given birth to a child, or had any child in their abode or dependent on them in any way.
It is my belief that our society should be more focused on the plight of the innocent children here instead of just punishing the criminals. We have great funding and processes for punishment. Where is the equal priority, passion and money to PREVENT animals like this from having children to begin with? Where is the equal priority, passion and money to help HEAL and restore innocent children and other victims to any kind of psychologically healthy lives, so that these twisted ways of being are not passed down from generation to generation?
happening now says
Well said Sherry, I hope the children will be able to trust an adult again. There are some pieces to this story missing.
smartenoughtoknowbetter says
Whatever Horrors these 2 adults must have endured as children to cause them to grow into twisted adults will just be carried on with these 2 little girls…They will Not ever be OK….physical abuse may heal but mental abuse never goes away
Joy says
This is not necessarily a case of being abused turns you into an abuser. Its time to stop blaming everything on the parents, and take responsibility for your own actions.
Sherry Epley says
The equal priority, passion and funding for treatment of mental illness is simply NOT THERE in our society.
Our “physical” medical research and treatment industrial complex is absolutely massive. Billions of dollars each year are invested or paid into that industry, as a whole, each and every year. Our laws are built around protecting our physical bodies and punishing those that damage or murder them. But, what about the mental damage perpetrated against citizens every day?
In comparison, very little is done for the treatment of the mind/soul. Although, I personally have experienced and witnessed the amazing benefits of good psychological therapy, many, many people live in the dark ages and still do not believe in the proven science of mental treatment. Mental institutions and any kind of rehabilitation in prisons are almost non-existent in this day and age. The funding for any kind of social work or psychological therapy for those in great need is often the first thing slashed from government budgets. Our state DCF is a perfect example of those budget cuts.
It’s as if there is an assumption that those who are psychologically damaged are lessor, lazy human beings (“Takers”) who should just snap their fingers and “get real” and “get a job” and “get right with God” and “get normal”. This is now the uncaring society these children are faced with. . . what a tragedy on top of the excruciating pain they have already endured!
happening now says
AGAIN Sherry, well said
confidential says
Too much porno everywhere easily available to children while their personalities and minds are still in full development. Yes I know is freedom of speech and print/videos, but that freedom is with serious strings attached. These mind affected kids grow up to be parents and the uncontrollable distorted urges they learned thru distorted sites and irresponsible live unspeakable adults behavior, is what society has to endure then. Very horribly sad.
Harlei says
hello my name is Harlei you might not alive this but I’m one of the children that has been abused by then my moms name is Rhonda Wilkerson and I hope she gets what she deserves the abuse to my sister and myself the rape I could just stand and watch it so I told with fear but now we have a loving family and thank you I’m 13 now and I’m not living with that hell me a guy anymore or my mother so thank you for helping in ways I can respect
Harlei says
and yes this has been a hard journey but yes mental state for us will never leave we are left with this ugly scar but now we are safe with our loved ones thank you