TAMPA – Ju umpire went to work Monday to determine whether Ronnie Tremel Walker killed 14-year-old Nilexia Alexander on dark dead-end Tampa Street three years ago.
The 12-person panel told the judge that they wanted to go home Tuesday morning and resume deliberations after discussing the case in less than an hour on Monday afternoon.
If Walker is convicted of first-degree murder, the trial will move to the penalty stage where the prosecutor will ask the ju court to recommend a death sentence.
During discussions Monday afternoon, prosecutors alleged that a collection of evidence, including surveillance videos, cell phone records and DNA, pointed out Walker only as the girl’s murderer.
“On May 6, 2022, Nilexia Alexander was his prey,” said Chinwe Fossett, assistant state attorney. “She was greeted. She was taken to a faraway place, she was murdered, and she was murdered by Ronnie Walker.”
Walker’s defense countered that there was little evidence that he was the one who killed her.
One was Robert Creed. He admitted to being a passenger in Walker’s car and said he witnessed the shooting. The defense argued that it could reasonably believe that the Ju judge shot Nylexia as a creed.
The other was Stanley Wilson, a prison informant who came forward after being arrested for allegedly confessing to him.
“There is no other evidence that Ronnie Walker is responsible for Nilexia Alexander’s death,” assistant public defender Maria Dunker told the ju decree.
Ju-dean wandered around Belmont Heights a while ago before 3am, watching repeated footage of troubled teenage Nilexia fleeing her home. She wore a black T-shirt decorated with a photograph of a famous statue known as a thinker for the words “open your heart.”
The girl’s adopted mother, Ashley Alexander, sat in the courtroom gallery for testimony and discussion for most of the trial. She thought once about the witness stand, sobbing occasionally while talking about her daughter.
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She explained that when they were babies she would become foster parents for Nylexia and her sister. Their biological parents had lost their legal rights to their children. Alexander later officially adopted both girls.
As Nylexia grew older, she began to ask about her father. It led to a conversation about her adoption. She was 11 when she began to run away. She did, Alexander said, because she wanted to find her parents.
Some of the state’s most powerful evidence was a patchwork of surveillance video showing a black sedan as it cruised through city streets that early morning.
Alexander identified his daughter in one clip. This showed a girl wandering through the alleys of Belmont Heights before Walker’s Blackford Fusion lifted up.
Another unforgettable snippet, recorded about 15 minutes later, caused the car to turn towards a dead end on Floribraska Avenue in Tampa Heights, turn and turn off the headlights and stop. I sat for about a minute before the headlights came back, then turned off again before the car got faster.
Images from the surrounding area show streets in the sky, with the tranquility shattered by a series of six sharp, percussive cracks.
Hearing the gunshot, the man spots Nirkis in a weed choking field. She lay bent down by her side, her arms curled in front of her. A plastic bottle of pineapple-flavored tropical fantasy juice was nearby. Scattered across the dirt were some 9mm bullet shell casings and projectiles.
A bullet wound marked the upper back near her neck. Three more wounds marked her head. One was given to her right cheek, close range.
As she was dead on the roadside, her phone stayed in Walker’s car. It created a digital trail that mirrors those belonging to Walker’s girlfriend. His own phone was broken.
Police later found Walker at the car dealership where he worked. He was seen there after the murder and was cleaning his car. In the back seat, police found two cans of carpet spot cleaners.
Crime scene technicians identified a small red spot near the bottom of the driver’s side door frame. It tested the blood positive. Laboratory analysis showed that it contained a mixture of Walker and two other people’s DNA. Nilexia was identified as a “possible contributor” to the mix.
Creed admitted to the ju decree that he was in Walker’s car that early that morning. He explained that Walker picked her up and bought her a tropical fantasy drink at a convenience store before driving her down the dark street.
He said Walker asked the girl if she was having sex. They began screaming. During the debate, he pulled a gun, shot her, and ordered her out of the car. As she went outside, Creed said Walker followed. He heard more gunshots before Walker returned and ran away.
Creed says he was quiet and lied to the police at first because he feared that Walker would kill him.
Stanley Wilson, who was jailed for fraud, spoke about two conversations with Walker in July 2022 just before Walker’s arrest. At the time, Wilson said he worked as a bail bond.
He claimed that Walker asked about securing bail bonds for his girlfriend and Creed, who faced unrelated accusations.
Wilson claimed that Walker first told him that Creed shot “some girls” in the cheek. But later, Walker admitted he was the one who shot the girl, Wilson said.
He said Walker accused the girl of giving him a sexually transmitted disease. (There was no evidence that Nilexia had contracted such an illness.) He said Walker said he threw a gun on the Hillsboro River shortly after the murder.
The police dive team washed the river but found no guns.
After he came forward, Wilson secured a plea agreement in his own case in five years prison, testifying against Walker.
The defense chose Wilson’s testimony, highlighting the contradictions and saying that some of the things Walker told him were printed in Tampa Bay Times stories, but Wilson denied reading it.
The state urged the Juju to believe that both men were telling the truth. At the same time, they argued that their testimony was not the sole basis for the lawsuit against Walker.
Assistant State Attorney John Terry told the ju judge that Creed’s testimony in particular coincided with physical evidence. He suggested that Walker brought Creed for reasons.
“Some defendants are manufacturing alibi,” Terry told the ju judge. “Ronnie Walker was making scapegoats. … He knew that someone else would be responsible for having someone else in that car.”