By Lisa Trigg
TERRE HAUTE — Katron Walker will avoid a death penalty trial by pleading guilty to murder and attempted murder in an agreement entered Monday in Vigo Superior Court Division 3.
Judge David R. Bolk accepted the guilty pleas and set the case for sentencing sometime in August.
Walker faces between 45 and 100 years in prison for killing his 4-year-old son, Collin, and for the attempted murder of his then-2-year-old son, Monte, near Blackhawk. The June 13, 2006 attack occurred as police responded to an Amber Alert issued several hours after Walker took the children, allegedly at knifepoint, from their grandfather.
Police said Walker then fled southbound on Indiana 46 in a stolen Chevrolet custom van. He was located hours later after a person at a campground near Blackhawk, about 10 miles from the grandfather’s home, noticed the van described in the Amber Alert and notified authorities.
As police closed in, Walker reportedly ran out of an abandoned trailer carrying both children and plunged into a lake in which he and the boys had been fishing earlier in the day. Walker stabbed himself in the chest and also had stabbed both of his children.
Police said Collin Walker had been stabbed in the chest and had a laceration on his neck. An autopsy showed he died of the chest wound.
Monte Walker also suffered stab wounds and a laceration on his neck. He was transported to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
Walker had a prior criminal conviction for possession of methamphetamine. After his arrest, he tested positive for both marijuana and methamphetamine use.
The boys’ mother had filed for a restraining order against her husband earlier in the day of the abduction. In her petition for the protective order, she stated Walker had abused her on three occasions. On one occasion, she said he also threatened to harm the children if she notified police.
During a news conference late Monday morning to announce the plea agreement, Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said he consulted with the victims’ family in setting the terms of the agreement.
“There is a sentencing cap of 100 years, and the state will argue for what we deem reasonable,” Modesitt said. He declined to elaborate due to the pending nature of the case.
The mother of the victims, Teresa Dwyer, who has resumed using her maiden name since divorcing Walker, appeared in court with family and friends for the guilty pleas. She declined to make a public comment on the case, but Modesitt said she had signed an acknowledgment stating she was in agreement with the plea offer.
As part of the agreement, Walker waives his right to appeal the sentence he receives from Bolk. Typically, sentencing must occur within 30 days of conviction, but the defendant waived that right in court and asked for additional time to prepare for the final sentencing.
Modesitt said the sentencing was preliminarily set for Aug. 18 or 19, but the actual date depends upon the availability of expert witnesses.
Defense attorney Joe Etling, one of Walker’s court-appointed public defenders, declined to comment on the expert witnesses who may be called to testify since that issue is still being discussed. The defense team of Etling and attorney Jessie Cook filed a notice of their intended defense by reason of mental disease or defect in August 2007. Three mental health experts later were appointed by the court to provide an independent evaluation of Walker.
Jury selection in the trial was to begin Aug. 31, and the murder trial was to start Sept. 14.
If the case had gone to trial, the county had budgeted $400,000 this year for prosecution and defense team expenses. The county already had spent more than $189,000 from 2006 through March 2009 on the case.
Modesitt had said he was seeking the death penalty in the case. If Walker had been convicted and sentenced to die, additional expenses would have been incurred as the case traveled through the lengthy appeals process. A 2002 study of Indiana death penalty cases found defense and appeals in capital murder cases cost an average of $623,000, compared with $77,600 for a sentence of life without parole.
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.
