Overview
- The jury deliberated about five and a half hours and sent notes to Judge Jeffrey Geller indicating a 10–2 split favoring voluntary manslaughter over murder.
- Waker, 66 and a wheelchair user, is charged with first- and second-degree murder and attempted murder in the Feb. 20 shootings that killed Clyde Barnes, 79, and wounded Vance Winston Bey, 73.
- Prosecutors presented surveillance placing Waker at Barnes’ apartment, DNA and blood stains on his hoodie, and video of him heading to a trash chute with a white plastic bag, though the firearm was not recovered.
- Waker testified that he acted in self-defense during a tussle, a claim the defense characterized as imperfect self-defense, despite his recorded interview denying entering the apartment or acting in self-defense.
- The case is expected to be reassigned for a retrial, which his attorney said will likely be scheduled within about 90 days.