Driver who hit pedestrian at 84 mph gets 15 years

A driver who slammed a rental car into a pedestrian and then lied to the cops about it received a15-year prison sentence Tuesday.

James A. Walker was speeding at 84 mph before he hit Wesley Wagner, who was walking illegally across the 6500 block of North Military Trail in Riviera Beach, investigators had testified. The posted speed limit there is 45 mph.

Walker, 35, had been drinking at a suburban West Palm Beach club before the 10:30 p.m. crash on Oct. 15, 2016, prosecutors said. He drove a few more blocks before ditching the heavily damaged 2017 Hyundai Sonata.

After a friend who had rented the car called police, Walker denied being in the car during the crash and presented an alibi witness who didn’t confirm the story.

On May 29, a jury convictedWalker of vehicular homicide, and leaving the deadly crash scene. The crimeswere punishable by up to 45 years in state prison.

Walker, whohadno prior felony record, onTuesday apologized for killingWagner, 27, of West Palm Beach. Still, he tried to convince the judge to sentence him to significantly less than the 11-year minimum possible term behind bars.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley wasn’ t swayed.

“Therewere attemptsmadeto basically conceal the crime,” he said.

Assistant State Attorney Laura Laurie asked for 15 years and said it “would be an injustice” to go any lower than the minimum sentence under state guidelines.

She argued Walker — in a jailhouse phonecalltwodays after the verdict— still blamed the victim rather than accept responsibility with genuine remorse.

The prosecutor played a recording of the phone call in which Walker told a friend he thought “we had a great case” until the jury heard him deny to police that hewas behind the wheel. Walker also said the victim was “out of his mind” on drugs and “stumbled into traffic.”

Laurie said Wagner was “literally left for dead” on the road, with dismembered body parts on the asphalt

Defense attorney John Cleary has

pointed out that Wagner was impaired by alcohol, marijuana, opioids, and an anti-anxiety drug, according to blood tested after the crash.

But Cleary said Walker has moved beyond blaming others, and accepts the “reality of his crime.”

In a hand-written letter to the judge dated June 9 and mailed from the jail, Walker wrote his heart goes out toWagner’s family.

“I never meant for any of this to happen,” he wrote, noting he has suffered from nightmares and depression. “From the bottom of my heart I amdeeply mortified. So sorry.”

Walker alsowrote that he was “coerced” to go to trial, and he wasn’t aware of a plea deal for a seven-year sentence until the start of jury selection.

The former Jupiter resident offered to move to the United Kingdom while serving probation, to be closer to his mother and ailing grandfather.

Deborah Walker, who flew in fromWarwickshire, England, to attend the sentencing hearing, told Judge Kelley her son is a good person.

“There is another side to him,” she said. “He is kind and loving and thoughtful.”