Sacto 9-1-1: Missing UCD professor sought

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Sacto 9-1-1

The Sacramento Bee's Crime blog is a comprehensive report of crime news, trends and information for your community and beyond.

December 1, 2008

Missing UCD professor sought

From Sandy Louey:

Davis police are looking for a missing 56-year-old UC Davis professor who police said is possibly suicidal.

Richard Langan Walker, Jr., a professor of veterinary microbiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, has not been seen since Sunday afternoon, according to a press release from the Police Department.

Walker told his family he was going to his office on campus. Surveillance photographs show he was in and around his office between 11 a.m. and 2:45 p.m., but he has not been seen or heard from since he left his office shortly after 2:45 p.m., police said.

He did not have his cell phone, credit cards or medications. Walker left correspondence for family members that indicate he is possibly depressed and may be suicidal, police said.

Police consider him an at-risk missing person and his vehicle, a 2007 red Toyota Tacoma pickup with the California license plate 8G85565, has been entered into a nationwide computer system.

Davis police are working with the UC Davis Police Department on the case.

Anyone with information about Walker or his vehicle is asked to call the Davis police at (530) 747-5400.

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Q: What happened to the former boxing champ who murdered a prominent lawyer in the 1990s?

A: Timmothy Howard Harris was sentenced to 58 years to life in prison on Dec. 4, 1997, for the murder of Sacramento attorney Francis W. "Bud" Zilaff, according to Bee reports.

Harris, then 41 and a former boxing champion, was convicted of invading Zilaff's midtown Sacramento office July 3, 1997, and fatally shooting the 68-year-old attorney, who represented Harris' former wife in a long, bitter divorce case that left Harris in debt. Harris also was found guilty of assaulting five office employees.

The month long trial, which drew a steady stream of onlookers, ended Nov. 6, 1997, with jurors rejecting Harris' claim that police officers had "gotten the wrong guy."

Judge Greta Curtis Crossland, who had little discretion under California's sentencing laws, used what little latitude she had to give the former state welterweight champion an extra five years in prison, The Bee reported.

Crossland said she was doing so because of Harris' callousness in threatening employees with a loaded 9mm handgun and because of his deceit in using a disguise and gloves.

Zilaff was shot at his desk with no time to even "plead for his life before he was executed," Crossland said.

Deputy District Attorney Tom Johnson said Harris received "basically a life sentence."

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