Four years from now, Zyaira Mateen would have been in middle school, one step closer to her dream of becoming a doctor. Zyanna Harris would have been old enough to get a driver’s license. Zoie Nash likely would have been pitching for a high-school softball team. And Cordayja Jones, D’Myunn Brown and Keonte Wilson would have each been on their own paths to one of a million possible futures.
Instead, four years from now, if not sooner, Johnthony Walker will leave a prison cell after serving time for causing the accident that killed the six children.
Judge Don Poole gave Walker a four-year sentence for his reckless aggravated assault charges and explained Tuesday to a room full of grieving parents that Tennessee law prevented him from handing down any harsher punishment. Poole said Walker didn’t meet the qualifications of a “dangerous offender” that would have allowed him to stack Walker’s numerous driving-related convictions together for a stiffer sentence.
How did the judge arrive at Walker’s sentence?
After a trial in February, an out-of-town jury found Walker guilty of 11 counts of reckless aggravated assault, six counts of criminally negligent homicide, six counts of assault, and one count each of reckless driving, reckless endangerment and use of a portable device by a school bus driver.Some of those were lesser charges than what Walker initially faced. When he was indicted in 2017, Walker faced six counts of vehicular homicide for each of the Woodmore Elementary students killed in the crash.Jurors, though, often have the option to find defendants guilty of a lesser charge, and that’s what happened in Walker’s trial. The jury said he was guilty of criminally negligent homicide instead of vehicular homicide. That means he went from a Class C felony that carries more potential prison time to a Class E felony, which carries less.Guilty verdicts are never the final step in the punishment process. Unless you’re found guilty of first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence, a judge must determine your punishment, and how you’ll serve it.In Tennessee, a judge has two sentencing options when a defendant faces multiple charges: Concurrent versus consecutive.A concurrent sentence means that all sentences run together. It’s considered the lighter of the two options since a defendant often only serves time for their most severe charge.If one is convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated assault, for example, a judge will likely make a defendant serve the aggravated assault concurrently. Why? Because the defendant is already serving a life sentence for murder.Consecutive sentencing involves a judge stacking all of a defendant’s charges together and making him or her serve time for each count of the charge. But a defendant has to meet certain criteria first.According to Tennessee law, a defendant must be a professional criminal; violate probation; be a dangerous, mentally abnormal person; or be convicted of a statutory offense that involves sexual abuse of a minor, among other criteria, for a judge to impose consecutive sentencing.Even though Walker faced several charges, he didn’t meet those criteria or have a prior criminal history in Hamilton County, his attorney argued.As a result, Judge Poole sentenced him concurrently. He started with Walker’s most severe charge: Reckless aggravated assault, a Class D felony that carries two to four years in prison.He gave Walker the four-year maximum and ran everything else behind that charge.Walker spent almost a year in Hamilton County Jail before he made bond in fall 2017; he will receive credit for that time served.Because he is considered a “range one” offender, he will be eligible for parole after he serves about 30 percent of his four-year sentence.
Poole did reject Walker’s request for an alternative sentence, saying the Nov. 21, 2016, crash that killed six Woodmore Elementary School students and disfigured and traumatized 31 others was too horrific.