GUILTY NV - Jamey Walker, 18, abducted & murdered, Las Vegas, 9 May 1981

[zwiebel]

Florida man Willie Lee Shannon has just rejected an Alford plea deal from prosecutors over the rape and murder of 18-year-old beauty Queen Jamey Walker in Las Vegas 34 years ago. Jamey was kidnapped for ransom in 1981, and her body was discovered May 10, 1981 under a bridge at Lake Mead, having fallen 50 feet. Shannon, long a suspect, has been implicated in Jamey's murder by semen found on her body at the time, which was later tested for DNA as techniques developed.

Jamey made heartrending calls to her dad before she was killed.

Shannon turned down an offer from prosecutors to plead to second-degree murder and face 15 years in prison. Now prosecutor Frank Coumou said he plans to seek the death penalty for Shannon at a trial slated for March.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/defendant-rejects-plea-deal-1981-murder-case

Shannon's arrest in 2010.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/suspect-held-florida-lv-slaying-29-years-ago

More information about Jamey's kidnapping and murder:

http://knpr.org/desert-companion/shesa-true-victim

 

[zwiebel]

Shannon avoided charges for so long because, before DNA, investigators could only go on fingerprints from the scene, and they did not match Shannons. So it does seem very likely more than one person was involved in the crime.

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2010/dec/07/man-arrested-florida-womans-1981-death/

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Man takes plea deal in Las Vegas cold-case murder

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/man-takes-plea-deal-las-vegas-cold-case-murder

A man prosecutors say was linked to a nearly 35-year-old murder case has pleaded guilty.

More than five years ago, authorities said DNA evidence linked Willie Lee Shannon to the kidnapping and slaying of 18-year-old Jamey Walker. He was arrested in 2010.

Shannon, 64, accepted an offer from prosecutors to plead guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and face 15 years in prison to avoid the death penalty.

The deal was drawn up under what's known as an Alford plea, which means Shannon would not admit guilt, but acknowledge that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. He is to be sentenced in March.

"There's no way he's going to admit anything," Shannon's lawyer, Mace Yampolsky, said. "There is no way this deal would have gone down if he had to."

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

From last month:

Former pro boxer sentenced in Vegas in 1981 teen murder case

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Former-pro-boxer-sentenced-in-Vegas-in-1981-teen-6885124.php

An aging former professional boxer was sentenced to 15 years in Nevada state prison in a long-unsolved case stemming from the ransom kidnapping, rape and murder of a neighbor, an 18-year-old high school cheerleader, in 1981.

Willie Lee Shannon, now 64, said nothing during his sentencing Thursday in a courtroom full of family members and supporters wearing yellow "Justice 4 Jamey" T-shirts to honor victim Jamey Walker.

Shannon pleaded an equivalent of no contest in January to second-degree murder in a plea that avoided trial. His so-called Alford plea didn't admit guilt, but conceded that prosecutors could prove their case.