Emma Walker

Case background and investigation

Emma Walker was a 16-year-old high school cheerleader in Knoxville, Tennessee. She had been in an on-and-off relationship for about two years with William Riley Gaul, who by the autumn of 2016 was an 18-year-old freshman and football player at Maryville College, according to ESPN and CBS News. The relationship had recently ended.

ABC News reported that unusual incidents preceded her death. On the Friday night before, Walker received anonymous messages claiming Gaul had been kidnapped, and she found him lying in a ditch. The next morning, a person dressed entirely in black tried to get into her family's home.

In the early hours of Monday, November 21, 2016, two shots were fired from outside the house through the wall of Walker's bedroom while she slept. One bullet struck her behind the left ear and the other lodged in her pillow, ABC News reported. Her mother found her unresponsive that morning.

Investigators learned that a 9mm handgun belonging to Gaul's grandfather had been reported missing. According to ABC News, two of Gaul's friends contacted authorities and agreed to wear hidden recording equipment. The following night they accompanied Gaul as he moved to get rid of the gun, and officers recovered the weapon and arrested him. Yahoo's summary of the case says black clothing and gloves were also recovered. Maryville College dismissed Gaul from its football team after his arrest.

Gaul was tried in Knox County Criminal Court in spring 2018. Prosecutors argued that he acted out of anger over the breakup and knew the layout of the home well enough to aim at where Walker slept. His defence attorney argued that Gaul never intended to hurt her and fired the shots in a plan to frighten her and then appear as her protector, and asked the jury to consider a lesser charge of reckless homicide, CBS News and ESPN reported.

On May 8, 2018, after about four hours of deliberation, the jury found Gaul guilty of first-degree murder, felony murder, stalking, tampering with evidence, theft and possession of a firearm during a dangerous felony. He had pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, according to CBS News. He received the mandatory sentence of life in prison, under which he must serve 51 years before becoming eligible for parole. According to Wikipedia, a motion for a new trial was denied in 2021 and the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the murder conviction in February 2023.