Login | Register
[Greene County Daily World]
Greene County, Indiana ~ Saturday, July 4, 2009
Print Email link Respond to editor Read comments (6)

Walters to be back in court Friday

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Former Linton resident and convicted murderer Marty Walters will be back in a Greene County courtroom Friday morning.

Walters, who is serving a 48-year prison term for murder and 10 years for burglary, will appear before special Judge William Sleva from Lawrence County at 9 a.m. in Greene Superior Court for a hearing on several pending motions before the court.

Walters, 44, is seeking post-conviction relief to be released from Department of Corrections custody prior to his current release date of June 4, 2013.

The New Castle Correctional Facility inmate is serving the sentence for the brutal murder of Robert Gillett and the burglary of his Linton residence on May 24, 1993.

He was sentenced by Greene Superior Court Judge J. David Holt after entering a guilty plea as part of a negotiated plea agreement on May 11, 1994.

Walters filed previous post-conviction relief petitions on Aug. 29, 1996 and again on May 8, 2006.

Walters has contended in open court and in several interviews with the Greene County Daily World that he is innocent of the murder charge -- claiming he was framed by other co-conspirators.

Walters admits to be an accomplice in an initial burglary at Gillett's home, but alleges that the late Steve and Mike Baker went back later and took about $38,000 in a second burglary.

He says in documents filed with the court, that he was "mentally coerced" into signing the negotiated plea agreement by former Greene County Prosecutor David Powell with threats of a prison sentence of more than 200 years -- which Walters alleges is longer than allowed under Indiana law.

Walters also alleges in court documents that he was under the influence of 18 tablets of Lorazepam -- a tranquilizer used in the treatment of anxiety, tension, fatigue and agitation at the time he signed the plea agreement. He says the tranquilizer disoriented him, caused confusion and did not allow him to comprehend the full impact of pleading guilty in the case.

By signing the plea deal, Walters says he gave up his right to a trial by jury.

Former Indiana State Police Det. Bud Alcron, who originally investigated the case, told the Greene County Daily World this week that he is one of the witnesses at Friday's hearing. Alcorn is now retired from the ISP.


Comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on gcdailyworld.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

When one voices an opinion on "hear say", it is not credible evidence. When one says that this man had shown his killer instinct many times before it leads me to believe that one is speaking of his kickboxing career. Don't worry it not the first time that one has misjudged a fighter for a murderer. Remember Ruben Carter "Hurricane"? The man was robed of the world championship title and sent to prison all because, "he had shown his killer instinct", in the ring, "many times before"! the courts found Mr. Carter guilty and his innocence was only proven after he had aged and was enable to fight. Sound familiar? See, the this misjudgment lies deep within a mans own insecurities. So, before one is so quick to judge, review his plea. Take a look at the evidence. Marty is innocent of murder.

-- Posted by yoitsmerocky on Sat, Dec 20, 2008, at 8:41 PM

Of course the Bakers didn't want any part of that charge, but when they went back to get more and they killed the man, they had to blame someone, Marty didn't murder him, he beat him and and done wrong. Steve and Mike turned in states evidence, which granted them immunity so the state couldn't charge them with the murder. They knew they would go to prison if they didn't convince the prosecution to grant them immunity. This is so wrong. to take one convicts word to put another convict away,, kinda like pretrial for the two who got immunity, but the trial was between them and the prosecutor, David Powell. Again Powell wouldn't listen to the other side. Marty is not a murderer.

-- Posted by reb64 on Sat, Nov 22, 2008, at 5:08 AM

The evidence indicating Marty Walters guilt was quite overwhelming. He admittedly participated in the so called first robbery. Don't think that he would not want a chunk of the so called second robberies netted $38,000.00. This man is the killer and had demonstrated the "killer instinct" many many times before this incident ever even happened.

The Bakers were indeed intent on robbing Mr. Gillett but freaked out when Marty so brutally killed him in the process and wanted no part of a murder charge.

Considering the extremely brutal nature of this murder Mr. Walters should have gotten the death penalty.

-- Posted by dorindaJ on Fri, Nov 21, 2008, at 12:06 AM

I think that if someone is doing time for something they weren,t apart of then the court should listen. But if these men are no longer amongs us then wouldn,t it be sort of hard to cross examine them ? And if the police and fbi wouldn,t listen then what makes anyone think they will listen now? If the police and Fbi want someone so bad they are willing to let others go to get that person then wouldn,t it be waste of tax payers money to try the case again. Ican understand how the family feels I went thru this with my son in 1989 but noone would listen not even the lawyer that was to defend him. My son wasn,t that involved in the things he was arrested for but he spent time in prison anyway.

So my heart go out to Marty,s family but its a waste time I hate to say that but I have been through it and no from where I speak .

-- Posted by alicezimmerman58@yahoo.com on Thu, Nov 20, 2008, at 10:42 PM

I know in my heart he didn't do this. There are so many people that have said that he wasn't there that night but, the police and prosecution would not listen.

-- Posted by gccitizen on Thu, Nov 20, 2008, at 5:54 PM

He is telling the truth. This is also what Steve told me but the police didn't want to hear this. They said Steve and Mike Baker had full amunity From this if they would testify against Marty. Steve sat at my house and told what happened. The FBI came and talked to me but when I told them it was Steve and Mike they didn't want to talk about it.

-- Posted by ppjj on Thu, Nov 20, 2008, at 4:44 PM


Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration. If you already have an account on this site, enter your username and password below. Otherwise, click here to register.

Username:

Password:  (Forgot your password?)

Your comments:
Please be respectful of others and try to stay on topic.

Mailing list
Enter your email address to join our daily headline mailing list: