Retired Circuit Judge William A. Wilkes, widely respected as a consummate jurist during more than 30 years service on the bench and beloved as a mentor and friend, died Friday afternoon. He was 78.
He passed away from complications of Dementia with Lewy bodies at the Memory Care Unit of Allegro Assisted Living Facility on Fleming Island. The disease is the second most common type of progressive dementia after Alzheimer's disease dementia, medical researchers say.
"I was very blessed to be able to call him my soul mate and my husband for 41 years. Very blessed," Delores Wilkes said. "He is in a better place. His family has prayed him home."
The family will receive friends from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday at Broadus-Raines Funeral Home, 501 Spring St., Green Cove Springs. The funeral will be 1 p.m. Thursday at First Baptist Church of Middleburg, 2645 Blanding Blvd., Middleburg, with Rev. Scott Stanlin officiating. A private internment will be at Hickory Grove Cemetery.
Judge Wilkes presided over some of the toughest cases in the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Clay, Duval and Nassau counties including a quadruple murder death penalty trial that spanned four years. He is being remembered as a man of integrity who treated everyone who came before him in court, as well as those who worked alongside him, with dignity, fairness and respect.
"He was a very hard-nosed conservative judge in terms of sentencing.… But yet, he wouldn't let anybody get taken advantage of, not even a criminal," said Clay County Judge Timothy Collins who was an assistant state attorney when he first met the judge in 1984.
Collins cited a case where Judge Wilkes refused to revoke a sex offender's probation just because he went into a convenience store to buy something to eat while children also were there.
"Now, if he had thought that guy was in there just to be around those children, that guy would still be in prison. But he protected the rights of everyone …" said Collins, adding when he took the bench, Judge Wilkes became his mentor.
"When I became a judge, he told me two things that were critically important: always run your [court] calendar and hearings on time and be consistent," Collins said of Judge Wilkes who led by example.
Attorney Mark Sieron said he was a prosecutor 33 years ago when he first met Judge Wilkes, whom he described as "the best judge I ever appeared in front of."
"William Wilkes was Clay County. … He was universally respected by prosecutors and defense lawyers," said Sieron, now a defense attorney in private practice. "Prosecutors liked him because they knew he would be tough, and defense lawyer liked him because they knew he would show mercy when the circ*mstances warranted it. … He cared about people."
Known as "Clay County's judge," Judge Wilkes commonly worked 13-hour days at the courthouse then traded his black robe and gavel for blue jeans, a farmer's work shirt, ball cap and a cigar as he tended the cattle, hay fields and timber on the family's ranch in Keystone Heights.
"He was happy as a dead pig in the sunshine when he could get on his tractor. He absolutely loved the ranch … It was his solace," Delores Wilkes said of her husband who often came back to court sunburned from working outdoors on the ranch during the weekends.
Judge Wilkes was the longest serving judge in Clay County. After earning his law degree in 1968, he joined the private practice law firm of Anderson, Wilkes and McAnnally. In 1980 he was elected Clay County judge. In 1985, he was appointed circuit judge then was re-elected in 1986, 1992, 1998 and 2004. He served as Clay County's administrative judge from 1988 until his state-mandated retirement in 2010.
As retirement neared, Judge Wilkes, then 71, looked back on his 30 years on the bench. It was a career, he told the Times-Union at the time, that he'd never have predicted for himself as a younger man. But it was one of the best decisions of his life, he said.
"He was the kind of person, that if he had not become a lawyer he could have been a teacher," said Nita Goodson, who worked with him roughly 40 years including serving 24 years as his judicial assistant. "He enjoyed teaching you how to understand the law, what rules of procedure meant and why they were put into place."
When he retired, Judge Wilkes took senior status. He presided over cases throughout the Fourth Circuit up until a couple years ago when he became ill.
Lawyers — newly minted and veteran alike — learned to be prepared in Judge's Wilkes' court. He was always prepared, said attorney Darcy Galnor, who first met him in 2006 when she was a prosecutor assigned to his division.
"Judge Wilkes filled out cards for every case he handled. The cards included a person’s criminal history, the history of the case, what the lawyers had told him, and who knows what else. He knew the ins and outs of every case— sometimes more than the lawyers," Galnor said.
But he never belittled or berated lawyers in front of their clients. He once told the Times-Union that he had no problem calling an attorney into his office if he thought they needed "a little Sunday school lesson" about a case.
A founding member and past president of the Clay County Bar Association, Judge Wilkes was at the forefront of efforts to get the new Clay County Courthouse built. More than a few members of colleagues at the bar association say it should be named in honor of him.
"Judge Wilkes really taught a generation of lawyers how to practice law," said Orange Park Town Attorney Sam Garrison, who called him a mentor and a friend.
Teresa Stepzinski: (904) 359-4075
