A 19-year-old Iowa man who shot and killed two fellow students at an alternative school program for at-risk youths last year and wounded the program’s founder was sentenced on Thursday to 65 years in prison, according to reports.
Preston Walls, was convicted in September of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and assault causing serious injury in connection with the attack on January 23, 2023, in what the authorities called a gang-related shooting.
Judge Larry McLellan of the Polk County District Court sentenced Walls to three consecutive prison terms, one for each charge, totaling 65 years, according to prosecutors.
He was also ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to the slain victims’ families, the Polk County Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Walls will be eligible for parole after 40 years.
At the time of the shooting that Walls was in a gang and that the two teenagers he fatally shot, Rashard Carr and 18-year-old Gionni Dameron, were members of an opposing gang. All three were students at the program and knew each other.
During the trial, Walls testified in court that he had shot Carr and Dameron because he feared for his life. Walls said that he had “acted out of fear” and had “felt like they were going to kill me.”
At sentencing, Walls told the victims’ families that was “truly sorry,” but he reiterated that he had feared for his life, prosecutors said.
His mother and other relatives also testified about events that had shaped Walls’s life, including the death of his father.
The victims’ mothers read victim impact statements, prosecutors said, stating that their sons wouldn’t have hurt Walls, and that in some cases, they had stood up for him.
50-year-old William Holmes the sole survivor of the shooting and the founder of Starts Right Here, the alternative school program, also delivered a final message to his former student, prosecutors said.
“I wanted to be there for you,” Holmes told Walls in court, according to the news release. “I had your back like there was no tomorrow, and you know that. Why did you choose the place you love to do something like this?”
The defense had requested that the sentences Walls received run concurrently.
On the afternoon Jan. 23, 2023, Walls showed up at Starts Right Here in Des Moines, carrying a handgun and an extended ammunition magazine, according to the authorities.
He encountered Holmes, who tried to escort him out of the area, the authorities said.
Walls shot Holmes and then the two students before running away, the authorities said. Holmes suffered injuries to his hip and finger.
© Copyright RawNews1st
