Guilty Amy Walden to be sentenced for killing her husband, Clint





STAFF PHOTO BY ANNE MARIE KYZER Sheriff Greg Coursey and deputies led Amy Walden from the Burke County Courthouse in handcuffs and leg shackles after she was convicted of murdering her husband.

STAFF PHOTO BY ANNE MARIE KYZER Sheriff Greg Coursey and deputies led Amy Walden from the Burke County Courthouse in handcuffs and leg shackles after she was convicted of murdering her husband.

Although Amy Walden tried to convince jurors that her husband, Clint, killed himself because of money problems, jurors took just an hour to decide she was lying.

Throughout the four-day trial, which was presided over by Superior Court Judge Carl C. Brown, witnesses testified to seven different stories Mrs. Walden offered to explain her husband’s death.

Mrs. Walden, seven months pregnant with her third child at the time of the murder, was found guilty of shooting her husband and hiding his body for three days while it decomposed on their living room floor. She allowed her two children, 3 and 7 at the time, to eat, sleep and play in the home while Mr. Walden’s body emitted an odor that sickened deputies when they finally discovered the body.

The victim’s family Clint Walden’s family waited more than a year and a half to hear a guilty verdict passed down and now only want to move past the tragedy of Mr. Walden’s death in August 2004.

The late Clint Walden

The late Clint Walden

“I think we’ve got some closure now,” J.C. Walden, the victim’s father, said after the trial. “There hadn’t been a day or night I didn’t think about it. We feel justice has been done now.”

He went on to add that he’ll miss his son everyday but knows that he’s in a better place. “Clint was my baby,” J.C. said Georgia of the youngest of his seven children. “He was really a fine young man. I loved him to death, and it breaks my heart to have lost him.”

The proud grandfather regrets that his son will never see his two young children grow up.

“He didn’t get to raise his family,” he said. “He’s got two of the most beautiful children. I know he would be so proud to see them grow up.”

The victim’s brother Clay echoed his father’s sentiments on bringing the ordeal to an end.

“The verdict came back like I wanted it to, but it still didn’t bring Clint back,” he said.

As for Amy Walden, both Clay and his father say that while she committed a terrible act, she has their sympathy.

“All we can do is pray for her,” Clay said. “She’s a sick girl.”

The trial

Assistant District Attorney Hank Syms called it a “case of deception.” He pointed to Mrs. Walden’s lies during the marriage, lies to Mr. Walden’s family after his death and lies to officers in the months following the discovery of his decomposed body.

Defense attorney Peter Flanagan insisted that it was a case of overwhelming financial stress, ultimately leading to Mr. Walden’s suicide. The Walden’s carried about $40,000 in debt, most of which Mrs. Walden accumulated without her husband’s knowledge.

However, Regional Medical Examiner Dr. Daniel Brown told the jury that Mr. Walden’s death was ruled a homicide due to the nature of the wound.

While Flanagan argued that gun powder residue on Mr. Walden’s hand pointed to suicide, GBI gun shot residue expert Robert Clemensen said such residue can travel several feet from a gun when it’s fired.

Family members told jurors that their beloved brother and son would not commit suicide.

Clint’s father testified that he had helped the couple with money before, and his son knew he would help again.

He recalled the moment he knew for sure his son was dead.

“My heart just dropped and all of my strength just went out of me,” he said. “I said ‘Amy, how in the world could you do this?’ but she just turned and walked off. She didn’t shed a tear, didn’t say ‘I love you’ or ‘I’m sorry’ … not one word.”

Beverly Black, Mr. Walden’s sister and Capital City Bank community president, testified that he came to her office just two days before his death and made arrangements to pay off the debt.

He was forced to reschedule a loan after Mrs. Walden admittedly doctored bank documents to convince her husband the loan had been paid off when money was in fact still due.

Black told jurors that her brother had to wipe away tears when he told her he thought he might have to divorce his wife for her constant lies.

Three of Mrs. Walden’s former jailmates testified to the stories Mrs. Walden told them about her husband’s death. Although Mrs. Walden said she never spoke to them about that day, all three women mentioned common intimate details about the couple. Two of the women said Mrs. Walden told them it was suicide, albeit different stories about her discovery of the body, and one said she admitted to his murder.

Her story

Friday morning, Mrs. Walden took the stand and told her story.

She said she and her husband “had a good marriage,” and there was never talk of divorce. She rejected their pastor’s testimony that he had visited the couple just two days before Mr. Walden’s death to discuss their problems and encourage them not to get divorced.

“I did hide some debt from my husband,” she admitted. “He didn’t handle stress well and money was one thing he worried about.”

While the family watched intently, Mrs. Walden testified that she found her husband shot to death on their living room sofa that Sunday evening. She explained that she simply thought he was asleep on the couch, where he had been since returning from church, and had not bothered to check on him earlier.

She blamed shock for her failure to call authorities when she discovered his body, and said her immediate response was to move the children to her room and lie down with them.

She recalled moving furniture in the middle of the night so that the children would not see his body if they looked into the living room from the hallway or the front porch.

The next day, aside from continuing to allow her husband’s body to decompose in their living room, Mrs. Walden went about business as usual.

She took her daughter to school and even took the two children to play at their grandfather’s house, where she lied to him about the whereabouts of his son.

“I figured the longer I left him alive in my head, the longer he would still be there,” she said.

Showing the first sign of emotion since the trial began, Mrs. Walden cried as she told jurors, “I love Clint. I knew that his family loved Clint, and I knew that they wouldn’t want to accept him being dead. I didn’t want anybody to be hurt.”

She claimed that one week prior he had considered suicide but decided against it at the last minute. She didn’t feel it was important to tell their pastor when he came by to speak with them.

She told jurors she was simply too grief stricken to call anyone and had no intentions of moving the body.

In response to Syms’ questions about two hand trucks found in the living room and a truck backed up to the rear entrance to the home, she said they had considered buying a new recliner and it was a coincidence that they were going to move their old chair from the home the day of Clint’s death.

Mrs. Walden testified that all of the witnesses, including her pastor and Mr. Walden’s family, lied and only her story was true.

Although she claimed to be distraught over her husband’s death, she remained speechless for more than five minutes late in her testimony when Syms produced letters from a fellow inmate at the Burke County Jail. While Mrs. Walden referred to the man as a “pen pal,” he called Mrs. Walden his wife in the letters and discussed topics of a sexual nature.

With no explanation to offer for the letters and her new relationship, her testimony ended.

Sentencing

A date has not been set for Mrs. Walden’s sentencing, but according to Syms, the minimum sentence is life in prison plus five years.

All criminals found guilty of murder in Georgia must serve life in prison. Mrs. Walden was convicted of both felony murder and malice murder but will only serve one life sentence for the two counts.

Another law requires a fiveyear sentence for possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Sentencing for concealing the death of another and two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree will be up to the discretion of Judge Brown.

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