UPDATED 3:07 P.M.
PEORIA, Ill. – “My office, this jury, and our community have cared more for Navin in his death than his parents ever did in his life. Good riddance to them.”
Those are the words in a statement from Peoria County State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos, after a jury Friday found Brandon Walker, 42, guilty of the First-Degree Murder of eight-year-old Navin Jones in March of last year., and that the murder was done with exceptionally heinous or brutal behavior.
Jurors saw photos of how, in less than eight months, Navin went from being happy and healthy, to repeatedly injured and having lost at least 15 pounds and was rail-thin.
Defense attorney Gary Morris says Walker didn’t do any of that, saying mother Stephanie Jones, 37, is much more at fault.
“I saw no connection between what the doctors testified to, and the actions of my client, who had not seen the child in the 48 hours before he was made aware that the child had died under Stephanie Jones’ care,” said Garry Morris, defense attorney.
Morris says he will appeal the verdict, because he believes the judge was unfair to his side at a number of points in the trial.
“The judge eliminated the evidence at trial quite a bit,” said Morris. “He refused to allow us to call Stephanie Jones to the stand, since she pled guilty to the murder, as to explain why and how she did the murder.”
Among the points of contention, Judge John Vespa would not allow Morris to enter into evidence Stephanie Jones’ guilty plea, even admonishing Morris for suggesting he would bring it up anyway.
Prosecutors did show text message evidence they say showed that Walker was aware of what Stephanie Jones may have been doing to young Navin, and possibly signed off on it. They also showed police interrogation video seeming to contradict some of Walker’s own testimony on the stand. Some of that video, Morris claims, was edited and didn’t tell the whole story.
Assistant State’s Attorney Terry Muench referred to the death of Navin as a “horrific, awful death,” and pointed to witnesses saying Navin, by the end, looked like “a cancer patient, but with hair.”
The judge could rule on post-trial motions and the appeal on February 28th. Stephanie Jones pleaded guilty last week, but ended up taking the fifth instead of testifying as she was required by the plea deal. She will be sentenced February 7th. Stephanie faces 20 to 100 years in prison, while Brandon Walker could face up to life.
(Reporting by Will Stevenson, WMBD Radio News)
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PEORIA, Ill. – 42-year-old Brandon Walker could spend the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of First Degree Murder in the death of his son, eight-year-old Navin Jones.
The jury spent just under an hour deliberating after closing arguments were heard Friday morning, finding that the murder of Navin was done with “exceptionally cruel behavior.”
Navin Jones was found malnourished, beaten, and abused when he died in a Peoria hospital in March of 2022.
His mother, 37-year-old Stephaine Jones, pleaded guilty last week to one of six murder counts as part of a plea deal in the case. But she was also required to testify against Walker at his trial as part of the deal, which she didn’t do on Thursday by pleading the Fifth on the stand.
In a statement after the verdict, Peoria County State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos says, “My office, this jury, and our community have cared more for Navin in his death than his parents ever did in his life. Good riddance to them.”
Walker’s defense attorney, Gary Morris, says he is planning to appeal.
Sentencing for Walker is scheduled for February 28th
This story will be updated.
