Gary man gets 55 years for role after victim gunned down outside mom’s home

Meredith Colias-Pete, Post-Tribune (Merrillville, Ind.)
·2 min read

Virgil King got 55 years Thursday in connection with 23-year-old Daqwuan Walker’s Jan. 25, 2023 shooting death, just outside his mom’s Gary home on the 500 block of Chase Street.

Walker’s mother ZsaKenya Mathews and an elderly relative were inside. Mathews said at trial she dropped to the floor when she heard gunshots, then ran outside to see him on the ground.

“I was forced to watch my son die,” she told King in court Thursday. “I want to know why. You changed my life forever.”

A clear motive was not established.

King’s co-defendant Micah Sanders, 23, got 45 years in a plea on June 28. His DNA was found on a Stoeger handgun conclusively linked to Walker’s death.

A second Glock handgun was discovered two days later in the bottom of a laundry basket. A DNA expert said it had a mix of Walker’s, King’s and Sander’s DNA. One bullet casing from the crime scene was not tied to the Stoeger gun, but couldn’t be conclusively linked to the Glock.

King, 24, was convicted June 14. He was sentenced to 50 years on murder Thursday with five for a serious violent felon enhancement.

Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce asked for 65 years, saying the circumstantial evidence was “overwhelming.”

Defense lawyer Adam Tavitas argued King had a bad childhood. King had been shot eight times in his life, stabbed, and still had some bullets lodged in him. They understood the verdict but disagreed. He asked for 45 years.

King said he didn’t have an “easy upbringing,” which was not a “crutch.” He accepted responsibility. Sometimes we have a “bad choice” of people we hang around with, he said.

Judge Gina Jones lauded Mathews, saying her strength to attend court for two criminal cases was “unmatched.” King’s main mitigator was he was “significantly less culpable” than Sanders for Walker’s death, Jones said.

Mathews said afterward she was “relieved, “grateful” and thankful to the judge and prosecutors.

Police were called at 8:17 a.m. on Jan. 25, 2023, to the 500 block of Chase Street in Gary where Walker was lying lifeless on his back near the home’s front stoop, according to court records. A witness told police Walker was walking back from a gas station around 6 a.m. when gunshots rang out, according to court records.

Sanders and King were found and arrested with guns and body armor where they fled to an apartment on the 2500 block of Waverly Drive, five blocks away from the murder scene.