Four years after killing, family of murdered Tri-Cities man shocked by killer’s sentence
Patrick S. Romero’s family and friends entered Benton County Superior Court on Monday morning, filling three rows of the courtroom. The last person in the line of people, a male family member, carried an urn covered in a teal blue cloth.
The urn contained Romero’s ashes.
On February 22, 2020, 17-year-old Stuart B. Walker shot and killed Romero in a West Bruneau Place parking lot, near Highway 395 in Kennewick.
Walker was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison by Judge Norma Rodriguez. He also will be required to participate in rehabilitative programs, including anger management.
It was an exceptional sentence because prosecuting attorney Julie Long asked for 17 years. Walker’s attorney was Karla Kane.
In Rodriguez’s decision, she considered Walker’s youthfulness, including his maturity for his age, education history and developmental milestones. Other mitigating factors included impetuousness, childhood environment, history of family problems and peer pressure.
Rodriguez said that she also considered Walker’s racial identity in her decision, noting disproportionate incarceration rates of young black men.
The judge stated that the human brain does not fully develop until age 25 and that while committing the crime, Walker was influenced by peer pressure.
“Do something in your life that makes up for this crime,” Rodriguez told Walker during the sentencing.
Walker, now 22, was held at Benton-Franklin Juvenile Detention Center on an initial charge of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. He was charged as an adult because of the seriousness of the crime.
Later, the charge was reduced to second-degree murder due to Walker’s youthfulness.
The night of the murder
On a Saturday evening in February 2020, five teens got into 19-year-old Raheem Mayberry’s car after their friend, a 14-year-old boy, suggested they “go shoot some tweakers,” according to court records.
Tweakers is slang for methamphetamine addicts, but it’s not clear why the group ended up in the West Bruneau neighborhood.
As they drove through the area, the 14-year-old handed a BB gun to Walker who started firing at Romero’s grandmother’s apartment, according to court documents.
Romero, who stayed there occasionally, was there with his 16-year-old sister and two 14-year-old friends.
His family told the Herald in 2020 that the car had driven through the neighborhood earlier and had damaged the window of a parked car with the BB gun. The teens and Romero were outside trying to cover the broken window with a floorboard when the car drove by again.
This time, Walker allegedly fired the BB gun at the window of their grandmother’s apartment, so they chased after it.
Romero threw rocks at the car, and Walker fired the BB gun back at him as the car pulled away, said court documents.
Romero and the teens thought that was the end of it and started back toward the apartment.
Suspects returned with gun
Police say the car stopped in an alley between the Econo Lodge and an empty car dealership and the five people inside chased Romero and the others, according to court documents.
Romero’s 16-year-old sister and one of her friends made it back into the apartment, but four people from the car caught up with Romero and the other 14-year-old.
Walker then fired a .40-caliber handgun twice, hitting Romero once in the upper chest but missing the younger teen, said court documents.
The suspects fled in the car with Mayberry driving, leaving Romero to die, said investigators.
The 14-year-old and Walker went to Clover Island later Saturday night and threw the BB gun into the Columbia River, according to police.
At the sentencing hearing
During the sentencing hearing, JaNaé Blakley, the victim’s stepmother, his sisters, Diamond Romero and Rose Taylor, and mother of his daughter, Christa Gladden, all made impact statements.
“One split second changed my world,” Blakley said. “Since then, I’ve been living in a nightmare that I’ll never wake up from.”
Walker’s father, Stuart B. Walker Sr., also spoke on behalf of his son.
Finally, Walker read a letter to the victim’s family.
“I beat myself up every day for taking away a father, a son, a brother and an uncle,” he said.
