Mistrial declared in Vashon Walker's murder trial

The judge in Vashon Walker’s murder trial declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors heard the defendant in a recorded interview tell police 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.

Walker is charged with murder in the June 17, 2014, death of girlfriend Jessica Osborne, who was shot through the head in the couple’s 4304 Forrest Road home.

Osborne, 28, left behind three young daughters.

Walker claimed an intruder shot Osborne, but police maintain he fabricated that story to deflect blame.

The mistrial does not dismiss his charges of murder and aggravated assault, nor free him from the Muscogee County Jail, where attorneys said he’s being held on $500,000 bond.

Judge Frank Jordan Jr. refused to reduce that bond after declaring the mistrial.

Prosecutors intend to try Walker again, but attorneys on both sides said they likely would not be available until March, when authorities would summon a new jury to hear the case.

The introduction of the inadmissible evidence of Walker’s prior felonies resulted from prosecutors’ playing a recording of his police interview on two different computer systems.

Attorneys had reviewed the recording and used the time stamp to note when Assistant District Attorney Katie Hartford was to mute it.

That was to be right before detectives asked Walker if he owned a gun. prompting Walker to reply he could not have a firearm because he’s a convicted felon.

When the computer disc of the recording was moved from Hartford’s laptop and played on another being used by the court, it apparently altered the time stamp by about three seconds.

The discrepancy led to jurors hearing Walker answer the question with “I’m a convicted felon.”

After the jury left the courtroom, defense attorneys Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick moved for the mistrial. “This is an absolute reversible error,” Shelnutt told Jordan, meaning the case on appeal would be sent back to Muscogee Superior Court were Walker convicted.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly argued that whether to declare a mistrial or instruct the jury to disregard the evidence was within Jordan’s discretion.

Shelnutt said telling jurors to ignore what they heard would not be sufficient.

“If you’re a convicted felon, you’re branded,” Shelnutt said. “You can’t unring the bell with a curative instruction.”

After hearing arguments from both sides, Jordan sided with the defense, and the murder trial that began with opening statements Tuesday morning abruptly ended about 3 p.m. Thursday.

Three witnesses testified Thursday before the mistrial:

Latasha Houston, Osborne’s sister, told the court she, her husband and Osborne moved here in August 2012 for “a new start.” The family is from Mississippi.

Houston said she and Osborne had been close, seeing or calling each other daily, until her sister started dating Walker. Then her contact with Osborne dropped off.

Sometimes Osborne would call and speak to her in a whisper, like she feared Walker might overhear, Houston said. On one call, Osborne told her Walker had kicked in her door and hit her in the face with a gun.

Osborne later sent her a text, typing, “Please don’t say nothing to nobody…. Please, Latasha, if this guy hurts me, you get my kids and never let them be apart.”

Houston said she last saw Osborne on June 16, 2014, the day before the homicide, and noticed bruises and scratches on Osborne’s face.

She recalled also that Walker at one point took Osborne’s phone away after seeing she had exchanged Facebook messages with another man: “He took her cell phone and she had to buy another one.”

On cross examination, defense attorneys called her attention to a video Osborne posted to Facebook. The recording was a tour of the couple’s new home on Forrest Road. Osborne seemed excited at the prospect of living there with Walker and her three daughters.

Said Houston: “She seemed happy, but I know she really wasn’t.”

The next witness was Lindsey Reis, executive director of the battered women’s shelter Hope Harbour. She said victims of domestic abuse often act happy to cover up their distress, but sometimes, “They are happy. The relationship’s not all bad.”

Reis said such abuse typically runs through a cycle that starts with “tension building,” when those around the abuser try not to trigger violence; then the “explosion” of a violent event; then the “honeymoon” when the abuser apologizes and promises to behave; and then a “calm” before it starts over again.

An abused woman commonly leaves and returns to her partner seven to nine times before finally ending the relationship, Reis said.

An abuser’s isolating a woman from family and friends is part of the “power and control” exerted over her.

Under cross-examination, Reis acknowledged she had no personal knowledge of the relationship between Walker and Osborne, and had never heard of Osborne’s seeking the shelter’s services.

The last witness was police Detective David Stokes, who questioned Walker the night Osborne died, and whose testimony introduced the video recording of Walker’s interview at police headquarters, where he was asked if he owned a gun.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Mistrial declared in Vashon Walker's murder trial."