NEW BOSTON, Texas: A man who accidentally shot his wife while firing at another was sentenced to 55 years in prison Friday after a jury found him guilty of murder.
Travon Walker, 27, met his friend Chris Shavers at a duplex on Apache Trail in Texarkana, Texas, the night of Jan. 30, 2018. He left his wife and dog with his car parked in a nearby alley. Shavers was meeting Murquan Neal to engage in a fistfight.
Before the fight began, Shavers handed his 9 mm Taurus semi-automatic pistol to Walker to hold. As the fight was being broken up with Neal getting the best of Shavers, Walker fired a shot into the air and a crowd of onlookers began running in every direction, witnesses testified. Walker continued shooting in Neal’s direction as the bystanders fled.
One of the bullets Walker fired from Shavers’ gun struck Kaitlin Lee, 23, in the head. Lee died of her wound in the early hours of Jan. 31, 2018, in a local hospital.
At trial, Walker’s defense lawyer, Josh Potter of Texarkana, argued that Walker could have handed the gun to someone else after the fight or that the fatal bullet could have been fired from a passing car mentioned by one witness. Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter pointed out that the only person any of the many testifying witnesses saw fire a gun was Walker and noted that if someone had fired from a car, they would have had to somehow taken possession of Shavers’ pistol as it was determined by a firearms expert to have fired the fatal shot.
Walker was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
Body cam recordings played for the jury at trial showed Walker at the hospital shortly after Lee was transported there via ambulance. Walker claimed he had been at home waiting for his wife when a friend called and told him she’d been shot. Witness testimony disputed Walker’s account.
Walker will remain in the Bowie County jail until he is transported to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
