It has taken me this long to absorb all of this and to be able to post. I have never experienced such an intense roller coaster of changing emotions throughout the trial and these past months. Anger, sorrow, disbelief, hatred, love, and finally relief and joy. It was a real eye opener seeing all of the intracacies and interactions between the lawyers, the jury, etc..
I was shocked that the trial only took 3 days. WLW did better than most in being his own lawyer. But, the very witnesses he grilled thinking they had his 'back' or were afraid of him, proved to be the stongest influence for Jeremy's justice.
We, his family and friends and supporters were counseled NOT to have any reaction to anything occuring in that court room. We heard brutal accounts of the murder. WLW tried to paint Jeremy as the bad guy.We cringed as we know he was not perfect but there was that man saying those things about Jeremy when the Jury did not know WLW had murdered AND stabbed before.. Then, he threw his brother, Dustin, under the bus. We heard over and over how Jeremy was running away from his 'friends' trying to get help as he was hit with a pipe, had a smashed forehead, broken arm, stab wounds, and bruising caused by steel toed boots. Letters WLW sent to his accomplices, mad because they talked when they were supposed to 'lawyer up". Threatening phone calls to the one woman he said he loved enough that he killed someone else in a 'crime of passion' and that Jeremy had been served.. Written and Taped video and/or audio interviews of Deanna, Wendy, Dustin and WLW. The autopsy report, the photographs of Jeremy beaten, bloody, lifeless... My sister got in trouble for squelching a sob. We were watched carefully to ensure we remained stoic. BUT, when the judge announced the verdict --1st degree murder--life in prison, you could hear all of us gasp. Then, the judge allowed Jeremy's dad to read a letter that would have been read if the jury came back with 2nd degree murder. In the letter was the fact that allowed the jury to know WLW had killed before. You could see the shock in a few of the jurist's faces. In the end, the most compelling facts are: the sweet girlfriend's testimony on the stand, her intelligence for keeping voice mails from WLW, and Dustin's pitiful testimony are what got justice for Jeremy. WLW was 'three strikes out' and life without parole was his sentence. GOD IS GOOD!
There IS a silver lining to all of this: Walter Lee Walton will never see freedom again, which is very appropriate to know this 4th of July weekend. We met Nanny to 5, and her wonderful brave daughter, her significant others and we will love them and count them as family forever. We have a sense of justice and closure and are slowly picking up the shattered pieces of our family and putting them back together again.
