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Teen gets life for neighbor’s murder

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Updated

BY JESSICA STEPHENjstephen@kenoshanews.com

Was Roddee W. Daniel’s role in his neighbor’s beating death the act of a “wild animal” or that of a wayward teenager who was born addicted to cocaine, left to fend for himself and could someday be rehabilitated?

The answer, defense attorney John Cabranes argued Tuesday, would determine what sentence Kenosha County Circuit Judge Wilbur W. Warren III would give Daniel, who was convicted last month for Capri Walker’s September 2008 murder.

“There’s only one sentence I can give you,” said Warren, who ordered that Daniel must serve the rest of his life in prison, without the chance of ever asking for release.

“The public has to be protected,” Warren concluded. “I, frankly, would worry that whatever age you got out, you would be inclined to do the same cold-hearted thing.”

Home burglary

Jurors took nearly 2½ hours last month to find Daniel, who turned 17 last month, guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and armed burglary.

Daniel was 15 and his co-defendant, Kawanis N. Trotter, was 14 when they were charged as adults for the murder of Capri Walker, 51, who was killed during a September 2008 burglary.

Attempts to keep the cases in juvenile court failed, although Trotter’s attorneys renewed their efforts to have his sentencing, which was set for Monday, held in juvenile court. Trotter’s next hearing was set for Aug. 30.

The Kenosha boys broke into Walker’s home in the 1400 block of 71st Street while she slept, carrying a baseball bat and an unloaded rifle, cut off the power and unplugged phones.

Trotter, who took a plea deal and agreed to testify against his cousin, told police that Daniel hit Walker, 51, on the head with a bat while she slept. Trotter said Walker never woke.

Daniel said Trotter beat Walker, 51, in the head with a bat after Walker woke up during the burglary.

Thoughts of the home invasion have kept Walker’s family awake at night, her mother, Jackie Rudy, said in a letter to the court.

“Her death rocked our family to the core,” Rudy wrote.

Family angry

Kenosha County District Attorney Robert Zapf struggled with how two young people could commit such a crime.

“I don’t get it. I don’t know how anyone can brutally, savagely, ruthlessly murder a woman and then go home and go to sleep,” Zapf said, citing Daniel’s own statement that he slept after beating Walker.

Walker’s cousin, Rose Merwitz, ventured a guess.

“They say a child is a product of your environment. Well, you are a perfect example,” Merwitz told Daniel. “Just what have your parents taught you? How to lie? How to steal? How to murder?

“To think of your family members hiding evidence to a murder — what type of people are you?” she added, referring to testimony that one of Daniel’s aunts concealed evidence in her pants to keep it from police, while others allegedly hid weapons.

“You are a disgrace, every one of you,” Merwitz said. “....It is my personal opinion you all belong in prison.”

‘Where’s the remorse?’

Kimberly Willis, who befriended the Daniel family through her social work in the community, also was disillusioned by Daniel’s actions, including his perceived lack of remorse over Walker’s death.

Daniel declined to talk in court Tuesday and would not give a statement to a pre-sentence investigator assigned to gather information.

“What happened? Where’s the remorse?” asked Willis, who said she knew Daniel as a gentle soul, slow to trust and averse to conflict.

“He showed me a different side of himself,” she added. “It took months for him to let me in. It wasn’t easy. But when he did open up and he did trust, he was a different person. There was such a light there, and I believe with all my heart that William can be rehabilitated.”

Family problems

Cabranes said he couldn’t excuse Daniel’s actions.

“I’m asking you to understand where he has come from,” he said.

Daniel’s mother, Latrina Edwards, denied Cabranes’ assertions that Daniel was a “crack baby,” that his father was a drug dealer and that, in Daniel’s family, the understanding of right and wrong was a “moving target.”

But Edwards silently nodded as Cabranes talked about Daniel as a child who helped her look after his nine siblings and kept Edwards on track with social service appointments.

Given all that, Cabranes said, “I don’t think this court can make a determination that he is beyond redemption.”

Actions spoke loudly

Warren acknowledged Daniel’s chaotic background, but said his actions the night of Walker’s death spoke too loudly to ignore.

“There was a viciousness involved in doing that. There was a mean-spirited, evil thought that had to go though your mind when you beat this poor woman in her head. What kind of person does that?” Warren asked.

The judge found the answer in a statement Daniel made days before his trial, nearly two years after Walker’s death.

“‘I killed that old bitch,’ ” Warren quoted. “That’s the most remorse you can find in your heart to give. Sad.”

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