BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - A Birmingham man faces serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a state prison when he is sentenced in August for his conviction for trafficking a large amount of heroin. He is the brother of a man who killed himself in during the recess of an unrelated trial in Walker County in February.

Charles Askew Williams, 27, was found guilty by a jury of one count of trafficking heroin at the end of a trial on Wednesday before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Virginia Vinson.

Vinson set Aug. 20 as the date for sentencing Williams.

According to court records Williams was arrested at his parent's home on 6th Avenue Wylam on April 13, 2011 and he was charged with distribution of heroin. Based on the 158 grams of heroin confiscated by law enforcement at the time of his arrest, Williams faces a mandatory life without parole sentence.

The Alabama law under which Williams was convicted states that anyone convicted of trafficking heroin in which 56 grams or more is involved, "the person shall be sentenced to a mandatory term of imprisonment of life without parole."

"This defendant (Williams) possessed 1,540 doses of heroin as well as all of the tools necessary to prepare it for sale," Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Cynthia Raulston stated in an email today. "Drug cases tend to be referred to as 'victimless' crimes, but they are not. There have been 33 victims of heroin overdose this year and there will be many more to come."

"Heroin is pervasive in our community and we will do all that we can to eliminate it from our streets," Raulston stated. "This verdict should be a message to the drug dealers that the police will seek you out and we will prosecute you for the destruction you are causing to the citizens of Jefferson County."

Williams' attorney, Scott Boudreaux, said Williams will appeal the verdict.

"I'm extremely disappointed," Boudreaux said. He said the conviction was based solely on circumstantial evidence. He said he doesn't believe prosecutors proved that Williams had constructive possession - meaning that he had knowledge that the drugs were there and that he had exercised dominion and control over them.

When Birmingham police raided the house in 2011 Williams was on the back porch of the house when police found heroin in a bedroom, Boudreaux said. The only thing in the bedroom that linked him to that room was a pill bottle with his name, he said.

Boudreaux said that testimony at the trial showed that Williams' brother and a cousin had stayed in the bedroom the night before and that Williams had not stayed at the house in the two months prior to the police raid.

Williams' brother, Daniel Lavale Williams, 27, shot and killed himself in February during a court recess in his robbery and assault trial in Walker County, Boudreaux said.