A Portland man who stomped another man to death in the parking lot of a motel in a dispute over a red beanie was convicted of murder Friday after a Multnomah County jury deliberated for just three hours.
There was no question that Jacauree T. Walker, 27, was the man shown on surveillance footage pounding his sneaker-clad foot onto Clyde K. Hunt’s head. Walker admitted as much on the stand earlier in the five-day trial.
Walker’s defense instead hinged on the idea that he didn’t know his actions could cause a death, with his attorney citing fentanyl intoxication as a factor.
Hunt, 19, was knocked unconscious during the April 7, 2022, attack at the Evergreen Inn & Suites on Northeast 82nd Avenue and died in a hospital 19 days later.
Homicidal intent is required for a second-degree murder conviction, which carries a mandatory lifetime sentence, while the lesser crime of manslaughter is punishable by 20 years at most in prison.
“We can agree that the video of that incident is terrible. It’s hard to watch, it just is,” defense attorney Drake Durham told the jury of six men and six women during closing arguments. “But I want you to know, these kicks and stomps were not intended to end the life of Mr. Hunt.”
Deputy District Attorney Kevin Demer held aloft an evidence bag containing a pair of black-and-white Air Jordans and said it was ludicrous that Walker hadn’t known that stomping on Hunt’s head could cause fatal injury.
Demer went to pick up an empty paper cup off his lectern, then suddenly knocked it to the ground in a demonstration of split-second decision showing intent.
“When you see the ferociousness and rage that he’s showing, that’s the intent,” Demer said.
Footage of the minute-long fight shows the altercation began as Hunt was walking away from a pay-by-the-hour motel room and Walker rushed at him from behind. Both men assumed sparring stances — then Walker landed a belly-to-back tackle that took Hunt to the ground.
The footage shows Walker stomping on Hunt’s head nine times, then returning 30 seconds later to land two more blows. Walker then recorded a Snapchat video that was recovered on his phone when U.S. marshals arrested him last May.
“You better never disrespect me again, little boy,” Walker is heard saying in the video, adding an expletive. “You’re lucky this time.”
The discord between the two men stemmed from Hunt’s belief that Walker had failed to pay him $10 for a red beanie, Walker said on the stand.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Shelley Russell scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 20.
— Zane Sparling; zsparling@oregonian.com; 503-319-7083; @pdxzane
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