Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jan 2007
Source: Whitewood Herald (CN SN)
Copyright: The Whitewood Herald 2007
Contact:  http://www.whitewoodherald.sk.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2158
Author: Bill Johnson

TEN YEARS FOR A LIFETIME

Justice was well served last week in Yorkton when a jury, after three 
days of difficult deliberations, found Kim Walker guilty of 
second-degree murder in the death of James Hayward. Walker was 
sentenced to spend at least 10 years behind bars for killing Hayward, 
a known drug dealer with whom Walker's daughter, Jadah, was living 
and who had addicted the 16-year-old girl (Hayward was 24 years old) 
to morphine.

This was a difficult story to hear being revealed in the court 
proceedings which took place nearly four full years since the 
shooting death occurred. It was a story as much of a family being 
viciously torn apart by drugs, as it was of one man murdering another.

Court was told that Walker was worried his daughter's addiction was 
killing her and blamed Hayward. The family had tried to get help for 
her from the police and from the healthcare system but in the end 
they found themselves alone, and likely at wit's end, watching their 
daughter fall irrevocably under the control of Hayward and the drugs 
he provided.Without intervention who knows what fate awaited Jadah? 
If there's a positive side to this incident it's the fact that Jadah 
did subsequently recover from her addictions, graduated from high 
school and is living a productive life in Yorkton. Little wonder 
that, as her father was led away from the courthouse, she repeatedly 
told reporters that her father is her hero.

Walker is well known in the area and all those who know him agree 
that he's not the type they'd associate with such a blatant and 
violent act. But murder he did commit. On March 17, 2003 he went to 
Hayward's house and, following a confrontation, Walker shot Hayward 
five times with a .22 calibre pistol.

The defence argued that it was the desperate action of a father who 
felt he had no other option to get his teenaged daughter out of a 
dangerous situation that could ultimately kill her. The crown argued 
that it was an intentional act and therefore, murder.

Most fathers who I've talked to about about the case, agree that, 
given the circumstances, they, too, would have considered all options 
to free their own child from such a dire and abusive situation. And 
while murder is wrong, there's something equally despicable about an 
adult preying upon a vulnerable teenager, while selling drugs to 
others, including teens in and around the city, in order to make a living.

As much as his family members may cry that Hayward has been unfairly 
portrayed, it's very difficult for most of us to consider him 
remotely as 'the victim.' Had he not lost his life one can only 
wonder how many young people, including Jadah, he would have cruelly 
victimized by dooming them to live as addicts, doing whatever they 
needed to do to feed the never-ending appetite created by the drugs 
he provided them, for a fee, and which inevitably may have claimed their lives.

It was not right, though, for Walker to murder Hayward. We live in a 
society where we must respect the lives of others and cannot use guns 
to resolve a situation that we don't like.

There was no denying that the incident occurred exactly as it was 
detailed in court. A murder had occurred, but how should the 
circumstances leading up to it, affect the outcome of the trial? 
Hence, the difficult decision that the jury had to consider. Justice 
Jennifer Pritchard told the jury that murder had been proven and 
therefore they, the members of the jury, were left with three 
possible decisions.

Was it an outright case of a premeditated, cold-blooded killing and 
therefore first-degree murder?

Or, at the other end of the scales of justice, was it a spontaneous, 
spur-of-the-moment act of emotion, and therefore manslaughter? The 
jury, in the end, made the right choice, picking the third, midway 
verdict, second-degree murder, recognizing that it was planned 
beforehand, but there were mitigating circumstances behind it.

Walker, his family and friends, will all have to take solace as he 
spends the next 10 years in prison that he did what he felt was the 
right, if not the only thing, he could do on that dire day in March, 
2007 to give his daughter a future. Ten years in exchange for a 
lifetime. If there is a lesson to be learned, we can only hope that 
the police and other support staff will respond better to a family's 
pleas for help with an addicted child.

The unsettling aspect of this case is that it could happen to a very 
ordinary family such as the Walkers. The true villain was not Kim 
Walker or James Hayward. It's drugs and their all-consuming reach 
into the lives of ordinary people. This case has left a lot of us 
wondering if it could happen to us, and, if it did, what would we do? 
What could we do? The answers are not easy to find.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine