Jury yet to reach verdict in Vashon Walker murder trial

The last thing jurors saw on a big, flat screen as they left the courtroom after closing arguments in Vashon Walker’s murder trial Friday was a text the girlfriend he’s accused of killing sent her sister.

“Don’t say nothing to nobody … my little sister, and I’m counting on you to keep your mouth shut,” read the text from Jessica Osborne, the mother of three young girls. “Just promise me if anything ever happen to me you get my babies and don’t let nobody split them up. … Their dad’s don’t do anything for them now so please Tasha if this guy hurt me, you get my kids and never let them be apart. … Love you sis.”

Osborne, 28, was shot through the head on June 17, 2014, in the 4304 Forrest Road home she and Walker shared. The couple had been together just two months.

Prosecutors said Osborne’s homicide was the violent end of an abusive relationship that gradually escalated. Walker had a history of domestic violence, and the previous May 30 he had kicked in Osborne’s door and hit her in the head.

“It’s the sad reality of domestic abuse,” Assistant District Attorney Katie Hartford told jurors in her closing argument, the image of Osborne’s text on the screen behind her, white words on a pink background.

Such abuse is more prevalent than authorities can pinpoint, she said: Only one in four victims reports it.

Hartford recounted what neighbors said they saw and heard at Walker’s Forrest Road home that day. A 10-year-old who had been playing outside said she twice saw Walker and Osborne arguing. A woman living across the street said she heard them arguing loudly, too.

Later the woman heard a bang, like a gunshot, she testified. Then she saw Walker come out the back door, turn and kick the door in, she said. After that, he walked out to a corner of the yard for several minutes before going back in.

In 10 or 15 minutes, the police came, and she heard Walker tell them of a gray pickup truck that sped away from the street outside his home. The neighbor saw no such vehicle.

Inside the house, police found Osborne dead on the living room floor, where a .45-caliber bullet went through the right side of her head and into the floorboard. Gunpowder at the hole in her head indicated the barrel had been pressed against it. Her shirt was torn off.

Outside by a backyard fence, police found a Ruger .45-caliber pistol hidden under vegetation. Georgia Bureau of Investigation ballistics tests later matched it to the bullet that killed Osborne, and to two more bullets and seven shell casings police found inside the house.

At police headquarters, Walker waived his right to an attorney, and in a video-recorded interview gave investigators his account of what happened.

He told detectives that as he and Osborne returned from running errands that day in 2014, she went inside while he tried to find his cellphone in the car.

He heard a noise in the house, and when he went to investigate, found an intruder had Osborne down on the floor, a gun to her head. “You already know what it is,” Walker said the gunman told him. “Give it up.”

He said the intruder wore a gray fleece top, gloves and dark jeans. The gunman ordered Walker to shut the door before shooting Osborne, after which Walker punched him, causing him to drop the gun, Walker said.

A struggle ensued, during which the intruder retrieved the gun and shot at Walker as Walker ran to a back room, he said. Later he peeked out and the gunman fired again before running out the back door, Walker said.

As he stepped outside, he saw a gray pickup truck speed away, Walker told detectives. Then he went back inside to check on Osborne, called police, and tried to give her CPR.

Detectives who initially believed him soon became suspicious, noting discrepancies:

▪ Despite the fierce hand-to-hand fight he said he had with an armed intruder, Walker had no corresponding injuries.

▪ Though he said he cradled Osborne in his arms and tried to give her CPR, he had no blood on his hands and arms.

▪ Despite the number of times he said the intruder shot at him, neighbors heard only one gunshot.

▪ The shoe print on the back door that was kicked in matched the Adidas sneakers he was wearing.

▪ Though he told officers he went back into the house after hearing Osborne make a noise, that was unlikely. “She was dead the moment that bullet went through her brain,” Hartford told jurors.

Though he was loud and agitated as he told detectives his story, Walker at times became abruptly quiet, Hartford noted. For example, he told officers the intruder had a silver-colored gun, but later, when an investigator mentioned that, Walker said, “How did you know it’s a silver gun?”

He also turned silent when a detective told him his shoe print matched the one on the home’s back door, and a neighbor saw him kick it.

After jurors returned from a 90-minute lunch break Friday, Judge Frank Jordan instructed them on the law by which they were to determine the verdict. Jurors began deliberating about 3 p.m.

By 5 p.m., they had not reached a verdict, so Jordan sent them home, with instructions to return at 9 a.m. Monday.

This is Walker’s second trial in Osborne’s death.

During his first trial in December, prosecutors were playing the videotape of Walker’s interview with police when jurors heard officers ask whether he owned a gun. Walker replied that he could not have a gun legally, because he’s a convicted felon.

Jurors aren’t supposed to hear evidence of a defendant’s prior convictions, lest they prejudge the case by assuming someone who previously committed a crime likely would commit another.

Defense attorneys J. Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick moved for a mistrial, which Jordan granted.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Jury yet to reach verdict in Vashon Walker murder trial."