‘Picture-perfect domestic violence case’ leaves GA 3-year-old orphaned, killer in prison
The little girl was an infant when her father was killed in a Columbus shooting.
And she was three years old when her mother was shot dead beside her, the pistol so close that gunpowder burned the child’s face.
The day after Christmas 2020, her mother Chasity Walker was breaking up with boyfriend Jamari Sider at a friend’s home in Carver Heights, where the two had agreed to meet. The girl was sitting with them on one end of a wicker bench, her mother in the middle and Sider on the other side, when Sider stood up, pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and shot Walker in the chest.
Walker fell unconsciousness, the bullet piercing her heart. When the homeowner came out, she found the little girl standing there stunned beside her dying mother.
“Mommy fell down, and I hurt my face,” the girl said.
The shooting left her an orphan, and Walker’s family drove that point home Tuesday as they confronted Sider in Muscogee Superior Court, where he was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder.
Walker’s mother, Kimberlyn Walker, is caring for her granddaughter now.
“She don’t sleep,” she said. “At 2 in the morning, she asks me, ‘Can I go home, with my mama and daddy, in their house?’ I have to tell her, ‘That’s not their house, but one day, you will live with them. They’re your angels.’”
A sister, Khadegha Collins, said the family can’t fill the gaps left in the child’s life.
“She was left without a mother or a father, and she’s grieving that every day, every day. That’s something that we can’t give her, can’t replace, and I feel like she’s been robbed of her life, already, as a young girl, and she’s only 3 years old.”
Sider was 21 when he killed Walker, 20, after an abusive relationship that lasted three years, investigators said. Judge Ron Mullins sentenced him to life with possible parole, meaning he will serve at least 30 years before he’s eligible for release. He is 23 now.
Khadegha Collins sobbed as she turned to face Sider in the courtroom.
“I feel like we’re living it all over again, and you didn’t care! You didn’t care at all!” she exclaimed. “You took her away from us, and you didn’t care. You knew what was happening, and you kept going. You kept doing it! You kept hurting her when she tried to get away! ... You sit there, and you look nonchalant like you don’t care, but it hurts!”
A history of abuse
Sider initially told officers Walker was hit in a drive-by shooting, his lie so elaborate that he gave a detailed description of the passing car.
But police found the bullet casing on the porch, and noticed the powder burns on the girl’s face, so Sider changed his story, saying he had the pistol in his coat pocket, and it discharged accidentally. He admitted that was untrue when investigators found no bullet hole in his coat.
What police found, after checking the couple’s phones, were “pages and pages and pages” worth of text messages signaling a relationship marked by domination and abuse, a detective said.
Sider was set to go to trial this week, before he decided to plea, and among those prepared to testify against him was Lindsey Reis, director of Columbus’ Hope Harbour shelter for victims of domestic violence.
Walker’s murder was a “picture-perfect domestic violence case,” Reis said after Tuesday’s court hearing.
“You had a young man that controlled what she was doing, where she was going,” Reis said. “She had to send pictures of where she was and who she was talking to. The back-to-back texting, the physical violence of it, the sexual violence of it, even down to giving money to him that was her money, when you talk about the different types of violence, Chasity felt the effects of all of them.”
Walker’s family noted that as well, as they addressed Sider in court.
“You didn’t love her,” said Kaneesha Collins, Walker’s aunt. “That wasn’t love. That was lust.”
Sider also spoke Tuesday, apologizing to Walker’s family.
“Me and Chasity’s relationship, it wasn’t perfect, like no relationship is perfect,” he said. “But we always stood by each other’s side, and on that day, we both really wanted to see each other.”
On that day, Walker was going to end the relationship, having sent a text to say, “I don’t feel the same way anymore,” prosecutors said. A week before that, she had texted Sider about his threatening her, writing, “You pulled a gun on me and my baby, and told me you were going to kill me.”
Represented by defense attorney Shevon Thomas II, Sider told the court he’s trying to redeem himself.
“Since I lost my girlfriend, I’ve been working on myself, becoming a better man each day,” he said. “And I’ve come here to pay for my actions, and I understand a life was took, so now I feel like as a man, I need to take action on my accountability.”
Outside the courtroom, Walker’s family said they appreciated the work of police and prosecutor Veronica Hansis, and all the people who have supported them, including those who still come by to give Walker’s daughter gifts on holidays.
The little girl lost her father, Kenyon Thomas, in a fatal shooting on April 20, 2018, they said.
They said they hope Walker’s homicide serves as a lesson to others trapped in abusive relationships, and need to escape. “I hope Chasity is helping save a life,” said Khadegha Collins.
Reis said one in four women are victims of abuse, and they’re particularly at risk when breaking up with the abuser. “That is the most dangerous time for a victim, is when they are leaving a relationship or when they have left a relationship,” she said. “That abuser is losing that control, and that is what was happening with this.”
Hope Harbour’s 24-hour crisis line for adults and children experiencing domestic violence is 706-324-3850. The organization can also be contacted through its website, hopeharbour.org.The National Domestic Violence Hotline is also available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233, with additional resources at thehotline.org.
This story was originally published May 24, 2023 at 2:53 PM.