Dad who killed daughter's boyfriend to serve 18 months
Kim Walker has already served 4 years in jail for emptying gun into teen daughter's boyfriend
CBC News
Posted: Jul 13, 2011 8:09 AM CST
Last Updated: Jul 13, 2011 2:02 PM CST
A police officer escorts a handcuffed Kim Walker to jail May 26. On Wednesday, a judge in Yorkton, Sask., sentenced him to another 18 months in prison, on top of the four years that he has already served for killing his daughter's boyfriend in 2003. (CBC)
Kim Walker — the father from Yorkton, Sask., who claimed he shot his daughter's boyfriend in 2003 to save her from a drug-addicted lifestyle — will spend another 18 months in prison.
Walker shot and killed 24-year-old James Hayward in in 2003 after Walker's daughter Jadah, Hayward's 16-year-old live-in girlfriend, became addicted to drugs.
Walker, 54, was originally convicted of second-degree murder but that verdict was overturned.
Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench Judge Ellen Gunn sentenced Walker to eight years on a manslaughter conviction on Wednesday.
Manslaughter with a firearm could be punishable by a minimum of four years in prison and a maximum life sentence.
Walker had already served four years in jail, and the Crown was asking for seven more. The defence argued he had served enough time.
After taking into account six and a half years of credit for time already served, Walker will serve another 18 months for the crime.
His daughter Jadah has stood by his side, remaining drug-free for the past eight years.
Walker's lawyers argued he acted in self-defence when he shot Hayward.
Walker, a welder, testified that he feared for his daughter's life as well as for his own and was worried about Jadah because she was doing drugs after moving in with Hayward.
Walker said he went to police and school counsellors but nobody helped. He petitioned to have his daughter held for 72 hours in a psychiatric ward. By then her weight had dropped to about 95 pounds from 135.
She went back to Hayward's house shortly after she was released. That was the day, March 17, 2003, he went to Hayward's house armed with a pistol.
Walker testified that Hayward had threatened him several times after Jadah was taken to the psychiatric ward.
Several eyewitnesses, including his daughter, identified him as the shooter.
Walker also testified he experienced memory loss and couldn't remember the actual shooting, but he said he recalled seeing Hayward coming at him with his fist raised just before it happened.
Ten bullets were fired, five of them striking Hayward, killing him almost instantly.
With files from The Canadian Press
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