Walker murder trial begins
By Deborah Bennett Millen News Editor

The wheels of justice began to turn this week in Jenkins County Superior Court for Ricardo Orlando Walker who is accused of the April 25, 2006 murder of Jenkins County resident Steven Harley. Walker also faces charges of criminal attempt to commit murder and tampering with evidence.

A jury of six men and six women, along with two alternates, was selected Monday morning to hear the case against Walker with Superior Court Judge F. Gates Peed, Ogeechee Judicial Circuit, presiding. Walker is represented by attorney Willie Sanders of Augusta.

On April 26, the body of Steven Harley was found on the floor in the bedroom of the Hiltonia Road home he shared with his wife, Tracy, and their two children. Mrs. Harley had made a 911 call to report that someone broke into their home and attacked her husband. She was later charged with the murder and pled guilty in March.

Responding to questions from Assistant District Attorney Michael Muldrew, Dr. Daniel Kenneth Brown, GBI Crime Lab Medical Examiner, testified that Mr. Harley suffered mul- tiple blunt force trauma to the head and multiple sharp force trauma to the neck area. Either or both, he said, could have been the cause of death. Evidence at the scene indicated that Mr. Harley was attacked in the couple's bed and then dragged out of the bed onto the floor where he was attacked again.

Details of the chilling story of lies, deception, adultery and murder did not begin to unfold completely until Tuesday when a visibly trembling Tracy Harley stepped into the witness box, raised her right hand and swore to tell the truth about the murder of her husband.

Responding to questions directed by Mr. Muldrew, Mrs. Harley recalled how a chance meeting with Walker in the parking lot of the Bi-Lo store in Waynesboro initiated a sixyear affair between the two and a relationship that was at times violent and unpredictable. She related how they'd arranged meetings that included hotel rendezvous while she was attending classes at a college in Atlanta on the weekends and how they often talked on their cell phones during the early morning hours while Mr. Harley was sleeping.

Mrs. Harley acknowledged that she also had affairs with other men "on occasion" while involved with Walker, but, when asked who killed her husband, she responded, "Rico."

When asked if the murder was planned, she responded, "Yes."

Mrs. Harley testified that Walker initially intended to pay someone to kill her husband so that they could be together, and that in April 2006 she gave him $1,500 for that purpose. That plan fell apart, however, on the morning of April 21, 2006 when Walker and "someone else" approached the Harley residence with the pretense of having run out of gas. The two talked with Steven Harley at the residence and then left because Walker said, "It didn't feel right."

Mrs. Harley stated that on the night of April 25, 2006 she picked Walker up after attending a PTA meeting at Blakeney Elementary School in Waynesboro where she was employed as a teacher. She transported him in the back of her Chevrolet Trailblazer to her home on Hiltonia Road, stopping along the way to have sex on a dirt road. Walker was carrying an unidentified object with him, she said.

Upon arrival at her home, Walker remained in the vehicle until around 11:15 p.m. when she let him into the residence. As her two young children lay sleeping in nearby bedrooms, Mrs. Harley showed Walker to the bedroom where her husband lay sleeping and waited in the living room as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.

From behind the closed door, Mrs. Harley said she heard sounds of "someone beating something." Walker emerged a few minutes later with what appeared to be an axe handle in his hand and requested something with which to clean the weapon. The two then removed jewelry from Mrs. Harley's jewelry box and strewed it around the premises. The contents of Mr. Harley's wallet was also removed and strewn around the living room and a glass in the back door was broken.

Walker then left in Steven Harley's truck, which was recovered the next day in Waynesboro. The two talked on their cell phones several times before Mrs. Harley finally made a call to 911. During this time, she testified that she could still hear her husband breathing in the next room.

While on the telephone with the dispatcher, Mrs. Harley said she and Walker continued to text message each other on their cell phones. It was these text messages that quickly identified her as a possible suspect and alerted law enforcement to Walker's possible involvement, other witnesses testified.

GBI Special Agent Cyrus Kirkland testified that once the phone calls and text messages were discovered, he arranged an interview with Walker at an Atlanta location on April 26. At that time Walker admitted to meeting with Mrs. Harley in Waynesboro on the night of the murder but denied any involvement in the crime. He also denied being in Jenkins County on the night of the murder. Telephone records submitted by the prosecution, however, placed him in north Jenkins County shortly after the time of the murder.

Defense attorney Sanders questioned the truthfulness of Mrs. Harley's testimony upon cross-examination and drew attention to her affairs with other men, including a Burke County Recreation Department employee and an employee at Blakeney Elementary School. He also called attention to the fact that she had communicated via text messages with a Burke County Board of Education member only hours before the crime. Mrs. Harley denied having an affair with the board member but admitted to the affairs with the other two men.

Upon redirect from Mr. Muldrew, a sobbing Mrs. Harley said she had confessed to murdering her husband "because it was the right thing to do." She then offered an apology to family members present in the courtroom stating, "I regret it. I truly do."

Mrs. Harley reiterated that no one else was involved in the crime, and that no one else had any knowledge of it. She also said that she was not trying to "frame" Walker for the murder of her husband.

The trial is expected to continue throughout the remainder of the week.