Walker was convicted by a jury on March 1 for the intentional killing of his boss, Jerry Harrell, on Valentine’s Day 2006. Walker was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and Harrell seemed to be at the center of many of his major delusions.
According to his testimony and a series of lengthy videotapes Walker made just before the killing, he believed he had been ordered by the U.S. Marshal Service to execute Harrell, who he believed was involved in parts smuggling using stolen four-wheelers stored on cement pads at the bottom of lakes. None of this was true, as the defense conceded at trial.
Three of Harrell’s children addressed Walker and the court Wednesday shortly before Hollingsworth announced the sentence. All three told Walker they did not hate him and had forgiven him, as their late father taught them to do. All three also asked the court to hold him responsible for his actions more than four years ago.
The first daughter characterized her father as a man of profound faith, which he passed on to his children, honest, hardworking and an outstanding husband and father.
“When I saw the love and patience he showed with my mother, I knew what kind of spouse I wanted and what kind of spouse I would like to be,” she said.
A second daughter testified that her father “was my best friend, and I miss him so much. We’ve celebrated Sunday dinners together, had grandchildren, had birthdays and graduations since he’s been gone. He taught us all a lot, but he’s not there for the hard times now. I miss his wit and his message that he would leave laying around to let you know he loved you.”
Addressing Walker directly, Harrell’s son said, “My dad really did care about you, Fred. It’s been a bad four years for me, and I didn’t always deal with things the way I should. I forgive, I don’t hate you, I don’t even dislike you. But it hurts, and you need to be punished for your actions. My two kids miss their grandfather, my mother misses her husband. I’m just grateful that I got to talk to him that day, and have him tell me he loved me one more time.”
Walker, through attorney Mark Nelson, gave oral notice of an appeal of the conviction.
According to testimony at trial, Walker began exhibiting strange, but essentially harmless, eccentricities in his 20s, but the delusions gradually became darker, scarier and all-consuming. He believed drugs and poison gas were being administered to him at home and various women would have sex with him while asleep. He also believed his brother had killed the daughter of a member of his draft board and dumped the body in Walker’s septic tank.
Rape was a common thread running through many of Walker’s delusions, along with demons, federal law enforcement agencies, homosexuality, the aforementioned stolen four wheelers and a constant fear of being raped or murdered by his various enemies. His testimony at trial said he was finally pushed to the tipping point by what he perceived as a threat to rape his daughters several years earlier.
Walker said he believed he had been given the kill order a few weeks before the shooting, but he did not want to execute Harrell in front of the children that worked in the shop. Then he heard the voice of God telling him, “You know what you have to do.”
As it turned out, both children were out sick that day, so Walker calmly shot Harrell once in the back of the head, apologized to the other co-workers in the room and then called the Marshal Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was still on the phone when Talladega County sheriff’s deputies arrived.
The defense centered around Walker’s admitted mental illness, but the state argued he was fueled primarily by hatred, even if it did stem from delusions.
Also in court this week, Hollingsworth:
• Sentenced Mark Edmonson, 31, to eight years in prison, reverse split, three years probation and three years to serve, for possession of a controlled substance.
• Sentenced Sonya Baird, 38, to concurrent 10 year and four year sentences for manufacture of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance, respectively. Across the hall, Circuit Judge Julian King sentenced Baird to another concurrent 10 year sentence on a manufacturing in the second degree charge.
• Sentenced William Bastian, 23, to 10 years for manufacture of a controlled substance in the first degree.
• Sentenced Justin Wiezenant, 22, to five years in prison for possession of a controlled substance.
• Sentenced Norman McKinney, 42, to 15 years in prison for burglary in the third degree. McKinney has seven prior felony convictions.
• Sentenced Brian Scott Bastian, 19, to 10 years for robbery in the first degree.
• Sentenced Steven Andrew Williams, 23, to four years for burglary in the third degree.
• Sentenced Brian Eldon, 34, to 10 years for burglary in the third degree.
• Sentenced Benjamin Wade Gallman, 29, to 60 months for distribution of a controlled substance.
• Sentenced Curtis Jeffries, 44, to 48 months for distribution of a controlled substance.
• Sentenced Gregory Godfrey, 26, to concurrent four year and 12 month sentences for theft of property in the second degree and criminal mischief in the third degree.
• Sentenced Gregory Eugene Taylor, 55, for distribution of a controlled substance.
• Sentenced Amber J. Truss, 23, to concurrent four year terms for two counts of fraudulent use of a credit card, suspended, three years probation.
• Sentenced Amber Patterson, 26, to two years in prison for theft of property in the second degree.
• Sentenced Alicia McClellan, 22, to three years, suspended, three years probation, for possession of a controlled substance.
Across the hall, King:
• Sentenced Matthew Avery to 30 months, suspended, 36 months probation, for burglary in the third degree.
• Sentenced Corneil James to 24 years for distribution of a controlled substance.
• Sentenced James David Stabler to 34 months, split, 23 months to serve and 36 months probation, for possession of a controlled substance.
• Sentenced Martin Jemison to 80 months for possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana in the first degree.
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