Walker is accused of killing his employer, Jerry Wayne Harrell, at MotorCycle Sports in Oxford in February, 2006. Several psychological reports submitted to the court Thursday morning all conclude that Walker is a paranoid schizophrenic, and probably had been for many years. Walker is currently 61, while symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia typically first present between the ages of 18 and 24, according to Jerry Gragg, one of the witnesses Thursday.
Medical records for that particular period of Walker’s life are somewhat “sketchy,” Gragg testified.
Some time before the shooting, Gragg testified that Walker believed he had been contacted by the U.S. Marshall Service and ordered to execute Harrell. He also said God had condoned the execution. Walker said he told God he did not want to kill Harrell in front of his children. Gragg said he believed when Walker arrived at the store and none of Harrell’s children were present, it was a sign for him to proceed.
Harrell was shot once in the back of the head with a 9 mm handgun. Walker was armed with that weapon and a .22 caliber handgun as well when law enforcement arrived.
There were at least seven other employees in the store when the alleged shooting took place.
When Talladega County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the crime scene, Walker was on the phone with the actual Marshall Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., attempting to report the successful completion of his mission.
Although they agreed he was psychotic at the time of the incident, both Gragg and Robert Furlong, the other witness called Thursday, agreed that Walker had been treated and medicated to the point where he could participate in his defense and assist his attorney, Mark Nelson. This does not preclude the defense from saying that Walker’s severe mental disease or defect had prevented him from appreciating the wrongness of his actions, however.
Gragg testified that he believed Walker understood the legal distinction between right and wrong at the time of the event, but that was overridden by his various delusions. He also expressed some concerns about Walker being able to accurately remember the surrounding events while in a psychotic state.
Furlong largely agreed, saying that if he had been in the state he is now, the killing would never have happened. “He knew he was breaking the law, but he was compelled to do it, and may have believed he was acting in self-defense.”
If convicted, Walker faces 20 to 99 years or life in prison.
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