TEN YEARS FOR A LIFETIME

Justice was well served last week in Yorkton when a jury, after three
days of difficult deliberations, found Kim Walker guilty of
second-degree murder in the death of James Hayward. Walker was
sentenced to spend at least 10 years behind bars for killing Hayward,
a known drug dealer with whom Walker's daughter, Jadah, was living
and who had addicted the 16-year-old girl (Hayward was 24 years old)
to morphine.

This was a difficult story to hear being revealed in the court
proceedings which took place nearly four full years since the
shooting death occurred. It was a story as much of a family being
viciously torn apart by drugs, as it was of one man murdering another.

Court was told that Walker was worried his daughter's addiction was
killing her and blamed Hayward. The family had tried to get help for
her from the police and from the healthcare system but in the end
they found themselves alone, and likely at wit's end, watching their
daughter fall irrevocably under the control of Hayward and the drugs
he provided.Without intervention who knows what fate awaited Jadah?
If there's a positive side to this incident it's the fact that Jadah
did subsequently recover from her addictions, graduated from high
school and is living a productive life in Yorkton. Little wonder
that, as her father was led away from the courthouse, she repeatedly
told reporters that her father is her hero.

Walker is well known in the area and all those who know him agree
that he's not the type they'd associate with such a blatant and
violent act. But murder he did commit. On March 17, 2003 he went to
Hayward's house and, following a confrontation, Walker shot Hayward
five times with a .22 calibre pistol.

The defence argued that it was the desperate action of a father who
felt he had no other option to get his teenaged daughter out of a
dangerous situation that could ultimately kill her. The crown argued
that it was an intentional act and therefore, murder.

Most fathers who I've talked to about about the case, agree that,
given the circumstances, they, too, would have considered all options
to free their own child from such a dire and abusive situation. And
while murder is wrong, there's something equally despicable about an
adult preying upon a vulnerable teenager, while selling drugs to
others, including teens in and around the city, in order to make a living.

As much as his family members may cry that Hayward has been unfairly
portrayed, it's very difficult for most of us to consider him
remotely as 'the victim.' Had he not lost his life one can only
wonder how many young people, including Jadah, he would have cruelly
victimized by dooming them to live as addicts, doing whatever they
needed to do to feed the never-ending appetite created by the drugs
he provided them, for a fee, and which inevitably may have claimed their lives.

It was not right, though, for Walker to murder Hayward. We live in a
society where we must respect the lives of others and cannot use guns
to resolve a situation that we don't like.

There was no denying that the incident occurred exactly as it was
detailed in court. A murder had occurred, but how should the
circumstances leading up to it, affect the outcome of the trial?
Hence, the difficult decision that the jury had to consider. Justice
Jennifer Pritchard told the jury that murder had been proven and
therefore they, the members of the jury, were left with three
possible decisions.

Was it an outright case of a premeditated, cold-blooded killing and
therefore first-degree murder?

Or, at the other end of the scales of justice, was it a spontaneous,
spur-of-the-moment act of emotion, and therefore manslaughter? The
jury, in the end, made the right choice, picking the third, midway
verdict, second-degree murder, recognizing that it was planned
beforehand, but there were mitigating circumstances behind it.

Walker, his family and friends, will all have to take solace as he
spends the next 10 years in prison that he did what he felt was the
right, if not the only thing, he could do on that dire day in March,
2007 to give his daughter a future. Ten years in exchange for a
lifetime. If there is a lesson to be learned, we can only hope that
the police and other support staff will respond better to a family's
pleas for help with an addicted child.

The unsettling aspect of this case is that it could happen to a very
ordinary family such as the Walkers. The true villain was not Kim
Walker or James Hayward. It's drugs and their all-consuming reach
into the lives of ordinary people. This case has left a lot of us
wondering if it could happen to us, and, if it did, what would we do?
What could we do? The answers are not easy to find.