David Ryan Walker pleaded guilty to malice murder in Walker County Superior Court on Friday morning. He received a sentence of life with the possibility of parole. Under current Georgia law, he would be eligible for parole in 2047. Police say he strangled his girlfriend, Candace Hankins, and dragged her body into the woods.David Ryan Walker admitted in court Friday morning that he killed his pregnant girlfriend and tried to hide her body in the woods.
Days before his jury trial was scheduled to begin, Walker pleaded guilty to malice murder, felony murder, feticide, concealing a death and aggravated assault. The most serious offense was malice murder, for which he will serve a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Georgia law allows prisoners with murder charges to go before a parole board after serving 30 years in prison.
In Walker’s case, he will be eligible after 29 years. He receives credit for the year he spent at the Walker County Jail in Georgia after his arrest in January 2017. At the time, Sheriff Steve Wilson said Walker killed his girlfriend, 29-year-old Candace Ann Hankins, in their house on Wheeler Road in LaFayette, Georgia.
Candace HankinsWilson said Walker then called relatives and asked for help hiding the body. The relatives instead called the police.
“They did the right thing,” Wilson said during a news conference at the time.