CONVICTED MURDERER A 'HERO' TO DAUGHTER

Saskatchewan Jury Finds Father Guilty In Boyfriend's Death

YORKTON, SASK. -- When she was 16, Jadah Walker watched her father gun
down her lover. She knelt beside his mangled body and cradled him as
he lay dying.

Yesterday, as her father was convicted of second-degree murder in the
death of 24-year-old James Hayward, she was bent double with grief.

She now believes the killing was a father's act of sacrifice,
committed to rescue her from a worsening drug addiction.

"My father is my hero," she said outside court. "He saved my
life.

"I'm going to put that on a T-shirt and wear it every day for the rest
of my life."

She had no kind words for her murdered lover, who relatives describe
as a caring and decent man who sold drugs to support himself.

"I regret ever meeting James Hayward. He ruined my life. He ruined my
family's life," Ms. Walker said.

Her father, 50-year-old welder and bagpipe enthusiast Kim Walker, was
given an automatic life sentence after being convicted of
second-degree murder. The jury recommended he serve the minimum time
in jail, which means he may be eligible for parole after 10 years.

Mr. Walker sat expressionless as the verdict was read, his head bowed
and his eyes unblinking. His daughter, now 20, was unmoved at first,
and then broke down sobbing.

Mr. Hayward's mother, Lorrie Getty, wept throughout the proceedings.
She held on to a small stuffed animal, which she said reminded her of
her son.

As she addressed Mr. Walker, Madam Justice Jennifer Pritchard
condemned the vigilante killing.

"You may have believed that shooting James Hayward was the only option
available to you," she said.

"No doubt the heart of most parents goes out to you. . . . But saving
your daughter, you wrongfully took the life of this man."

The March, 2003, killing of Mr. Hayward divided this town of 17,000.
Many felt that Mr. Walker was compelled to act in order to prevent his
daughter's spiral toward death. Mr. Hayward's family, however, said no
evidence indicates Jadah was about to die. She went to Mr. Hayward's
willingly and refused to leave when her father asked.

"How many options were truly exhausted at this point?" Mr. Hayward's
sister Alana Getty asked.

"Perhaps they both could have been saved, but no one was given the
opportunity to save James. Instead, Mr. Walker decided that he was
already out of options and chose to kill James."

In the week before Mr. Hayward was killed, Mr. Walker and his wife
Elizabeth received an anonymous note that said Jadah was slowly
killing herself by injecting morphine with Mr. Hayward.

Up to that point, the Walkers didn't know of her drug use, but they
had struggled to understand the changes in her personality. The once
well-behaved teenager had become a sullen 16-year-old. After one
bitter fight, the Walkers kicked Jadah out of their home. She moved in
with Mr. Hayward, a former bodybuilder and reputed drug dealer eight
years her senior.

Worried about Jadah's drug use, the Walkers went before a judge and
obtained a mental-health order to have her hospitalized for three
days. But as soon as she was released, she returned to Mr. Hayward's
house.

That same morning, court was told, Mr. Walker went to his basement and
loaded a 9 mm handgun. He also packed two extra magazines of
ammunition. He said he cannot remember much about that day, but four
witnesses said Mr. Walker pushed his way into Mr. Hayward's home.

He lifted the weapon toward Mr. Hayward, they said, and did not stop
firing until his gun was empty. Defence lawyer Morris Bodnar said he
is very disappointed with the verdict and intends to appeal.

"In this case, there was no help being given to a parent whose child
was being addicted to drugs, and when the parents did everything they
could, from talking to the child, to contacting the police, to getting
a mental-health order, nothing was done. They had to take other steps
to extricate her from a drug den," he said.