Guilty Verdict for Colored Teen Who Stabbed His White Girlfriend 43 Times

Tran Walker.

43 times seems a trifle excessive to me, even if she was completely insufferable.

Sioux City Journal:

Tran Walker stabbed his ex-girlfriend Paiten Sullivan 43 times. He stabbed his friend Felipe Negron Jr. another 17 times.

Along with other evidence presented at trial, the number of stab wounds inflicted upon the two teenagers proved that Tran Walker planned and contemplated their murder, District Judge Tod Deck said Thursday when announcing his verdict finding Walker guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the Jan. 28, 2018, stabbing deaths.

“Absent insanity, under the facts of this case, the court cannot conceive of (any) way by which this crime could have been committed that was not deliberate and premeditated. To stab one person multiple times and turn to another person and stab them multiple times almost demands deliberation and premeditation,” Deck said in finding prosecutors had proven two vital elements in the case against Walker.

Walker showed no visible reaction while the verdict was read. He was led quietly out of the courtroom at the conclusion of the hearing.

Walker and Sullivan, 17, had dated on and off in the months prior to the stabbing. On the night of the murder, mutual friend Negron, 18, drove Sullivan to meet Walker, whom First Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Mark Campbell said was out for revenge after Sullivan told him she was not in love with him and did not want to date him anymore.

Negron parked the PT Cruiser he was driving at South Cecelia Street and Jay Avenue shortly after 1 a.m., and Walker began stabbing his friends. Medical evidence showed that Sullivan bled to death after a carotid artery in her neck was sliced, and Negron died of excessive bleeding after his heart was punctured.

Witnesses who saw the altercation ran to the car, and one testified at trial that Negron identified Walker as his assailant. In a video shown at trial, Walker told investigators he had stabbed Sullivan and Negron. He told police he wanted Sullivan to know that her actions “led up to this.”

Paiten Sullivan (the other victim was a darkie).