GLEN ELLYN TEEN KILLED MOM WHILE ON LSD, JUDGE RULES

A DuPage County jury on Thursday found Bryan Walker guilty of first-degree
murder for killing his mother, Vera Walker, 39, moments after she had
called 911 to report that he was under the influence of LSD.

Jurors, who returned the verdict after deliberating 2 1/2 hours, apparently
rejected Walker's defense that the LSD made him unaware of what he was
doing at the time of the killing.

Walker was 16 years old and a sophomore at Northwest Academy in Streamwood
at the time of the Jan. 15, 1997, killing. He was tried as an adult and is
to be sentenced by Judge Thomas Callum on Oct. 2.

During the weeklong trial, DuPage County Assistant State's Attys. Dan
Guerin and Dave Bayer told jurors that Walker was angry with his mother for
calling 911 and that it was rage rather than hallucinations that prompted
the killing.

Defense attorneys countered that Walker was not aware that his mother was
dead until police began interviewing him hours after the crime. They tried
to convince jurors that he was not responsible for the crime because of his
mental state.

"This verdict shows that a jury is not going to let you claim that you're
not legally responsible just because you took some illegal drugs," Guerin
said.

During interviews with police after the killing, Walker identified the
murder weapon and eventually re-enacted the crime with a juvenile police
officer, indicating that he remembered crucial elements of the slaying,
prosecutors argued.

Vera Walker's body was found outside the Glen Ellyn townhouse she shared
with her son at 369 Farnsworth Ct. with the blade of a 5 1/2-inch steak
knife in her back.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski