71-year-old man gets prison for deadly stabbing, machete attack at a shared Sacramento residence
A judge last week sentenced a homeless man to 23 years to life in prison for two attacks in May 2021 after disputes at a shared Sacramento residence.
The first attack involved a man who was wounded but survived a machete assault, and the second involved another victim who was fatally stabbed in the chest.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne Gilliard on Friday sentenced Ronald Leon Walker, 71, for the two violent attacks, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday in a news release.
On Jan. 28, a jury found Walker guilty of second-degree murder in the May 28, 2021, stabbing that killed Bobby Mitchell, 58, of Sacramento. Prosecutors said the jury also found Walker guilty of assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the machete attack at Walker’s home two days before the deadly stabbing.
The conviction included enhancements to his charges for causing great bodily injury and being armed with a deadly weapon while committing a felony. Prosecutors said Walker was on misdemeanor probation for a domestic violence conviction when the two attacks occurred.
Walker was living in a home for older homeless people on May 25, 2021, when he became angry with the first victim and attacked him with a machete, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Sacramento police officers were called to the residence where they spotted dried blood droplets in the home’s driveway, and the front porch was wet and smelled of bleach. Prosecutors said the officers found Walker walking away from the home and arrested him, but investigators at the time did not find the machete.
The victim in the machete attack suffered a bone fracture and a cut on a tendon, which required surgery.
Prosecutors said Walker was released from the Sacramento County Jail on May 27, 2021 and invited friends to his home later that evening. Witnesses told investigators that on the following day Walker got into an argument with Mitchell at the home and stabbed him.
About 10:40 a.m., officers responded to a report of a stabbing at the home in the 2200 block of Cantalier Street, just north of Arden Way in the Old North Sacramento neighborhood, according to the Sacramento Police Department.
Prosecutors said the officers arrived and found Mitchell unresponsive on a bedroom floor. Police sad officers began providing aid to Mitchell, but medics later pronounced him dead at the scene.
The officers discovered a trail of blood leading from the bedroom to a kitchen sink, where they found three knives. Authorities later tested the knives and found traces of Mitchell’s DNA on one of the knives, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Officers also found at machete in Walker’s back yard. Prosecutors said the machete was later tested and determined to contained traces of DNA from the victim in the first attack.
On Monday, Walker remained in custody at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove awaiting transfer to a prison.
