Father pleads guilty to malice murder in death of 4-year-old son in Columbus
A father who was arrested in the September 2023 death of his 4-year-old son pleaded guilty Thursday to charges including malice murder, according to court documents.
Court documents show Jacquese Walker, 37, pleaded guilty to malice murder, hit-and-run, first-degree burglary and obstruction of an officer. He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Walker was arrested in connection with the shooting death of his 4-year-old son, Jacquese Walker Jr., at Liberty Commons Apartments.
Testimony in Jacquese Walker murder case
Previous testimony during a preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court by Columbus Police Department Sgt. Amanda McKelvey showed Walker reportedly told officers he purposefully shot the boy’s mother but didn’t mean to shoot his son.
Walker allegedly told detectives he fired low because he didn’t try to kill her and he aimed for her stomach or legs.
McKelvey said police responded Sept. 18, 2023, to a “very chaotic scene” at Liberty Commons, where they found the woman bleeding from several gunshot wounds.
The boy’s mother told an officer that Walker had shot her, according to McKelvey’s testimony.
Witnesses told police they saw someone drive away from the scene and hit another vehicle, according to McKelvey. The car, which reportedly belonged to the female victim, was involved in a second wreck.
Walker told detectives he intentionally wrecked his vehicle twice in an attempt to commit suicide after seeing his son had been killed, McKelvey testified.
Witnesses told police Walker exited the vehicle, ran to the victim, struck her and yelled at her, “You did this. This is your fault,” according to McKelvey’s testimony.
Walker and his son’s mother got into a fight on Sept. 17, 2023, and he told detectives that he heard voices in his head and he grew angrier throughout the day, McKelvey testified. A fight the next day led to Walker retrieving a gun from a closet as the woman grabbed the child and tried to leave the apartment.
DA reacts to Jacquese Walker’s plea
Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Don Kelly told the Ledger-Enquirer it’s “somewhat rare” to get a guilty plea to a life sentence in a murder case.
“I think this is a great result for our team, for the family, for the community, in that we’re able to take someone — a very dangerous person — off of the streets and do it without having to go through a trial,” Kelly said.
CPD did a “great job” investigating, Kelly said, and “put together a case that we could convince the defendant to plead guilty without going to trial.”
Kelly said the guilty plea means allowable appeals are limited.
“The big thing about getting a plea of this type is that the family doesn’t have to relive it again and again through the appeals process,” Kelly said.
When talking about Walker’s life sentence, Kelly said, “We want to make sure we get a just sentence, but this is definitely a just sentence.”