The lawyer for the college football player accused of murdering his cheerleader ex-girlfriend admitted his client fatally shot the teen, but claimed he never intended to harm her and that the shooting was part of a twisted plot to win her back, multiple outlets report.
During the trial for ex-Maryville College wide receiver William Riley Gaul, 19, prosecutors alleged he staged a fake kidnapping to get his ex’s attention and sympathy after she had broken up with him, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
Sixteen-year-old Emma Walker was killed in her bedroom while she slept on Nov. 21, 2016, when her then-18-year-old ex-boyfriend allegedly shot her from outside through the wall of the family’s one-story home in Knoxville, Tennessee, say authorities.
Prosecutors charge that Gaul became obsessed with Emma after she broke up with him after a tumultuous on-and-off two-year-relationship, allegedly stalking her in the weeks before he shot her, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
Gaul was arrested on Nov. 22 at his home, a day after the fatal shooting. In January 2017 he was indicted on seven criminal counts in the case, including first-degree murder and especially aggravated stalking.
‘On Paper, Everything Looked Great’
During opening statements on Tuesday in Knox County Criminal Court, Knox County Assistant District Attorney Kevin Allen called Gaul a “premeditated cold-hearted killer,” the Associated Press reports, saying he shot Emma because he was enraged that she had broken up with him permanently.
“On paper, everything looked great,” Allen said, the AP reports. “She’s the cheerleader. He’s the football star. They’re in a relationship. But the relationship was toxic.”
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“She was attempting to break things off with him,” Allen said. “He’s saying things like, ‘I’m going to kill myself’ in an effort to control, to manipulate, to possess her.”
On Wednesday, a friend of Emma’s testified that Gaul was often controlling with Emma, local station WVLT-TV reports, saying, “I felt she deserved better the whole course of the relationship.”
Another friend testified, “She wanted to get away from him for good this time.”
Defense attorney Wesley Stone argued that since his client never meant to kill Emma, he shouldn’t be found guilty of first-degree murder, asking jurors to convict him only of reckless homicide, the AP reports.
He did concede, though, that jurors “will hear some of the most bizarre, reckless conduct of my client,” the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
On the morning of the shooting, Gaul fired at her bedroom wall because he allegedly wanted to show her he was “coming to her rescue, being her hero,” Stone said.
Alleged Kidnapping Ruse
On Wednesday, Zach Greene, a friend of Emma’s, testified that two days before she was killed, she was at a party when she began receiving a string of anonymous texts claiming that someone close to her had been kidnapped.
“Go to the car with your keys,” the text stated. “Go alone…I’ve got someone you love. If you don’t comply, I will hurt them.”
When Walker, Greene and a group of friends went outside, they found Gaul face down on the ground, claiming he’d been kidnapped.
Gaul later admitted to sending the texts and making up the kidnapping, Allen, the prosecutor, said.
Stone said his client was trying to talk to Emma, who wasn’t speaking with him at the time.
Emma’s mother, Jill Walker, testified Tuesday that she and her husband didn’t like the way Gaul treated their daughter, who she has described as upbeat and caring and who had dreams of becoming a neonatal nurse.
“We tried to discourage her from seeing him,” Walker said.
