Interview, discussions focus of drive-by shooting trial

EVERETT — The murder trial of a former Boeing mechanic accused of killing a 15-year-old Seattle girl is stretching into its second week.

Jurors on Tuesday heard the final 30 minutes of the more than two-hour interview Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives conducted with Erick Walker. They also heard from a few of Walker’s former co-workers, including a woman who told jurors that on three separate occasions Walker asked her if she had heard about Molly Conley’s death.

The woman lived about a mile from the scene. She testified that Walker seemed “amped about the topic,” and interested in her feedback.

Another co-worker told jurors that Walker asked him what should happen to whomever killed the girl if the gunman was caught.

Walker is charged with first-degree murder and multiple assaults and drive-by shootings.

He has denied that he shot Molly as she and some friends walked along S. Lake Stevens Road. The high school freshman was celebrating her birthday with friends. The girls testified earlier in the trial, explaining the chaotic scene after they realized that their friend had been shot. One girl told the jury Monday she thought someone had thrown a firecracker at the group but then saw that her friend was bleeding.

Walker also has denied that he was responsible for gunfire between Lake Stevens and Marysville a few hours after the fatal shooting. Several houses were hit and prosecutors allege that Walker drove into a parked car outside a Marysville house during the shooting spree.

Investigators found damage to Walker’s car and learned that he had replaced a headlight a couple of weeks after the June 1, 2013, killing. Prosecutors say paint chips recovered from the Marysville wreck match Walker’s Pontiac. They also allege that bullets recovered from the drive-by shootings match Walker’s guns.

The defense says there is nothing that links Walker to Molly’s killing. Detectives never recovered a bullet.

Veteran Everett defense attorney Mark Mestel on Tuesday faced off against Brad Pince, a longtime homicide detective and the lead investigator in the case.

Mestel pointed out that Walker was forthcoming with information that helped with the investigation, including telling detectives he had been at a downtown Everett bar earlier in the night and that his dad helped him replace a headlight.

“He answered your questions and gave you accurate information that gave you leads,” Mestel said.

Detectives in turn misled Walker, saying that they had evidence that they didn’t possess, including DNA and video surveillance from the Boeing parking lots. Weren’t the detectives concerned that pressuring Walker could result in a false confession, that he would tell them what they wanted to hear?

“How do you hone your skills as a liar?” Mestel asked Snohomish County sheriff’s detective Kendra Conley at one point. She assisted Pince with the interview. She is not related to the victim.

The goal is to keep suspects talking and sometimes that means bluffing, the detectives said.

“I don’t believe I can cause anyone to forgo their will to tell me the truth,” Pince said.

Conley testified that she questioned Walker after the formal interview was over and the tape recorder had been turned off. She brought him a sandwich and asked Walker if he could give some relief to Molly’s family.

“?‘Are you telling me I shot up Lake Stevens and Marysville and went back to my life?’?” she quoted Walker as saying.

The detective testified that Walker said that didn’t make sense.

She later asked Walker why he couldn’t tell her that he killed Molly.

“He said he couldn’t do that because he didn’t want people to think he was like George Zimmerman,” Conley testified.

Zimmerman was on trial at the time for shooting an unarmed black teenager in Florida. The detective said Walker didn’t explain what he meant.

Jurors heard from an Arlington couple who Walker visited after Molly was shot but before the drive-by shootings. They told the jury that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Walker drank a couple of beers, played pool and watched a home movie that he and his friend made several years ago.

Jurors are expected to hear from the medical examiner and a ballistics expert later this week.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley