True Crime All The Time - William Walker

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

William Walker was a Cleveland firefighter who was fatally shot in his driveway one night in November 2013. Over a year later, a Crime Stoppers tip led police to look into those closest to William as suspects.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murder of William Walker. The murder investigation would uncover a tangled web of lies and deceit, all instigated by the person closest to William, his wife, Uloma. But she wasn't in it alone. Uloma recruited her daughter and several other young people to participate in William's murder.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 460 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime, Mike Gibson. How about you? Hey, I'm doing good. How about you? I'm doing great. That's awesome. Except you and I are both battling bad backs.

We are. Like a couple of old men that we are actually. I mean, I know you had trouble getting your walker with the tennis balls down the stairs to the studio. but we are we are battling uh you know some less than perfect backs right now that is uh some image that you just put in a lot of people's uh heads right now yeah let's go ahead and give our patreon shoutouts we had lexie b jump out to our highest level what's going on lexie annelise laranaga hey laranega book lady what's up book lady sarah compton hey sarah Hey, Sarah.

Steph Myrick. Well, thanks, Steph. Crystal Mowhouse. Well, what's going on, Crystal? Thomas Watson. There's Thomas. Sarah Janowitz. Janowitz in the house.

Paul Armstrong. Armstrong. Stretch Armstrong. Oh, he used to love Stretch Armstrong. Yeah. But I had a habit of cutting them open to see what was on the inside. You wanted to see whatever that stuff was. Yeah.

Yeah. What are you going to do? Yeah, exactly. And last but not least, we had Debbie Brown Gatoes. What's going on, Gatoes? And then if we go back into the vault, this week we selected Robert Blitz. Hood, hud, hud, go.

That's your football knowledge right there. You know, speaking of Stretch Armstrong, I was thinking about, like, my favorite toys as a kid. Yeah. I think my absolute favorite was I had this evil-cnevel motorcycle that you wound up and he like took off and jumped over this ramp. Do you remember that one? I do. Yeah. I also had a lot of the six million dollar man stuff. I remember that. Yeah. The bionic man or whatever. Yeah. Bionic man. Steve Faustin. Yeah. And then his girlfriend came into the picture later. Jamie,

the bionic woman. She did she had her own show, right? Yeah, she did. I didn't know they were a boyfriend but hey, I was younger than you. I mean, when you, so I didn't pick up on all the cues. When you both have bionic parts, you know. Well, yeah, I don't need to know all those details, but. So we have an episode out right now on true crime all the time on salt where we're talking about 16 year old Judy Rollins, who was reported missing from her family's home in 2001. Two weeks later, her body was found in the woods.

And, you know, this is one of those unsolved cases gives where police have identified or come out and said, so-and-so is a suspect. Right. But the person has not been charged, has not gone to trial. And those, for me, are always very interesting cases because, you know, they're closer to a solved case, but technically, obviously, they're not solved. And you're like, what do you, what do you got to do here to push it to the finish line? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, what are you going to do?

We will find out. And you will too if you listen to that episode. That's right. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am. We're talking about William Walker. William Walker was a Cleveland, Ohio firefighter who was fatally shot in his driveway. One night in November 2013, over a year later, a crime stoppers tip led police to look into those closest to William as suspects.

I don't know if we've talked a lot about firefighters. I mean, obviously you and I have done a lot of episodes, almost a thousand. Yeah. If you think about true crime all the time and unsolved combined, people from all different. walks of life with a lot of different types of occupations. You know, to me, firefighter, it's one of those that, you know, a lot of kids, they dream of being when they're younger. Sure. You know, there's a, there's a bravery aspect to it. You're talking about people who are putting their lives on the line. Of course, yeah. To help others, right? To stop fires and

save homes and save lives. It's a very dangerous job. Oh, absolutely it is. You know, and my hat off to all those guys and gals that do that day in and day out. It can't be easy. I know, you just want to go twirling down the pole. You like that, you know, just like this, why you have a stripper pole in here? Mm-hmm.

I don't know. Well, I figure if you ever need to practice, if Rex needs to practice, I got it here for. yet. I'm not going to watch, but I'll leave the room. You can do your practice if you got a gig later that night or whatever. I walked myself right into that. You did walk yourself into that. William Walker was 45 years old when he was murdered. He was described as a personable jovial man who loved his job. Not only did he enjoy firefighting, he also enjoyed teaching classes at the fire training academy. Personalable and jovial. Those are two words that, you know, people would use to describe you. You're a very jovial person.

I kind of think I am jovial. No, I'm not kidding around. I'm not making fun of you. You really are. You get along with people very easily. I can be jovial. I don't know that people would grab that word out of thin air right off the bat. It wouldn't be the first word that probably comes to mind.

No. There should be some other word. I'm just going to say, no, it would not be. William Walker joined the Cleveland Fire Department. In March 1998, he was a member of the department's elite rescue squad four, the most highly trained firefighters skilled in demanding rescues. When the merger of the fire department and EMS services was announced, William was selected to oversee quality assurance in the EMT office and the EMS.

Sounds like a pretty important role. Yeah, it does. And obviously, I think it denotes this air of, you know, competency, right? What people thought of William Walker. He was good at his job. And those people are, you know, often the ones selected for this role or that role. Secretary Michael Norman told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, that was a very difficult assignment. Will earned a lot of respect for being.

willing to step up into that position. President of Cleveland Firefighters Local 93. Frank Zobo said about William, he always put everyone else's needs ahead of his own. This is a guy who would read the paper and take away what's positive and ask himself, who can we serve today? He would give you the shirt off his back. Now, the shirt off his back thing, that's kind of a cliche, right? You hear that a lot.

Sure. Does anybody really give someone? the shirt off their back. Not normally. I do every Saturday night. Well, taking it off and twirling it around and throwing it into the crowd is not quite the same thing. Oh, okay. What I will say is that's, you know, a lot more preferable to the last part of the act and what comes off last and gets thrown. I do warn the audience. This could take your eye out. How is a thong going to take somebody's eye out? The size of the thumb. They got a peanut M&M size?

Is that what you, you just click peanut M&M? In August 2013, William was promoted to lieutenant. This was just one month after he married his longtime girlfriend, Yuloma Curry. William and Yuloma met back in 2005.

They were both divorced with children. It seemed like they had a stable and loving relationship. Yuloma revealed that she was, diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and couldn't afford treatment, William asked her to marry him so she could receive his health insurance benefits. Stand up guy. Yeah, I mean, that's, uh, kind of fits right in line with what people said about him, right? Put others needs ahead of his own, would give you the shirt off his back. Unfortunately, you know, I have a lot of experience with, um, with breast cancer. And it's,

it can be very nasty. Yeah, yeah, sure can't. On July 7, 2013, they got married in a private ceremony at a courthouse in Cleveland. Soon after the wedding, they purchased the home in Madison Township. They both wanted to move out of the city

to a quieter area. At the time of the murder, William and Yuloma were living in a two-family home with an upstairs and downstairs unit. Yuloma's daughter, Jacqueline, who was 17 at the time, and her boyfriend, 20-year-old Chad Patchett, lived in the downstairs unit.

Chad lived with the walkers for weeks at a time. And it was, you know, kind of noteworthy that when researching the case, when you go back to like 2013 articles, they don't use Jacqueline's name because she was technically a minor at the time. Now, all the reporting that came after that, they do use her name because obviously she would have turned 18 at some point. You could use her name at that point. But this is an interesting situation, right? You're living upstairs.

Yuloma's daughter and her boyfriend are living downstairs. It was said that Chad had no interaction with William while he was living in the house. He never even said hello to William because William would not have accepted his relationship with Jack. William was described as having a strict parenting style. Sounds like a tense house. Well, yeah. I mean,

and I can only assume that his biggest issue would have been the age gap, right? Chad's 20, Jacqueline was 17. Now, to some, three years is not that big a deal, but she was technically a minor. So that probably played into Williams' thinking. I just can't imagine being in a house or a building and knowing that your daughter and boyfriend are on the other floor and you just never talk to the other person. Like not even, hey, how's it going?

Yes. I mean, you're going to cross paths, right? When you're living in the same building, I get it. It's two different units. But, you know, people are going to come out at the same time. They're going to, one person's going to be leaving as the other. comes in, it would be very awkward. A detective later wrote in an affidavit that William had problems with them in the past

and had received threats from chat. So, okay, it's one thing to have an awkward situation where you don't like this guy, he doesn't like you. So you don't really interact that much. It's a completely different thing for William to have. have received threats from this 20-year-old. I think I'd have a problem with that, though. So now you're living in my building?

You threaten me? And now you're living here? I don't know. I would have a, there had to be some type of conversations happening. Yeah. And obviously, we don't know what conversations,

if any, were happening. It's also a weird dynamic because, you know, it's his wife, ULoma's daughter. So how do you kick them out? Yeah, I get it.

You know, you probably can't do that. But you have to find some way to coexist. But maybe that's why they chose not to talk to each other. It just seems so stressful. I feel like it would be. On the night of November 3rd, 2013, ULoma William, Yuloma son Macklin, and his girlfriend were home packing up in preparation for the move to Madison Township. After 8 p.m.

Yuloma sent William out to get them some fast food. He returned home around 8.30. As he was heading to the front door, he was shot four times in the chest. Yuloma was the one who called 911. She was inside when the shooting occurred. She claimed she looked up and saw a man at the end of the driveway, but could only see his silhouette. She heard William screaming and found him in the driveway.

And I mean, this is just a nightmare situation, right, for anyone to have their significant other wife, husband, shot outside the home. But not one. It's four times. Four times. And there's no way you're not going to hear those shots. I'm assuming somebody's not using a suppressor. It's probably going to be pretty loud. Now, she claims that she looked out, saw a man, but could really,

only see his silhouette. William was responsive when paramedics first arrived, but his condition worsened during the ride to the hospital. For a time, it appeared he was stabilizing. He was taken to the ER for surgery, but his condition deteriorated rapidly. William died at 1142 p.m. that night. Yet people do survive shootings, but he take four shots to the chest. It's going to be pretty rough. It is. Police found nine millimeter shell casings at the scene and submitted them for DNA testing. Williams co-workers at the fire department were deeply saddened by his death. Hundreds of people attended a candlelight vigil in his honor, but Yuloma did not. And I think, you know, you could look at that a couple of different ways.

Some people are going to say, oh my gosh, how could she not be there? all these people are out in support of her husband and she doesn't show up. But then, you know, I think the flip side of that is people could be grieving so much that they can't get out of bed. They don't want to be around anybody. Yeah, they can't go out to the public right now. Yeah. So I don't know.

People are going to make of that what they will. And I'm sure a lot of people did in the moment. Cleveland detectives initially followed leads, provided. by Ulloma that neighborhood drug dealers might have killed William to stop him from complaining about them. But this didn't lead to any arrests. Sound plausible? Yeah.

It could happen. Sure. I mean, I think if you're living in an area where, you know, there's drugs being sold and you don't like that. And somebody knows that you're complaining or calling the police, right? You could be targeted for that. Yeah. Very easily.

They might want to shut you up. Yeah, because you're endangering their livelihood, right? Their drug operation. Police opened up a tip line and received several calls about a man named Chad being involved. Investigators asked Yuloma if she knew anyone named Chad and she pointed to her daughter's boyfriend, Chad, Pad. She said Chad was a good kid who got along with William, but William's co-workers at the fire department told a different story. They said William disliked Chad and thought he wasn't good enough for Jacqueline. He thought Chad was lazy.

And I think if you're the police, if you're the investigators, this has to strike you as odd. Obviously, ULoma knows the relationship between William and Chad. painting it as good, but you have all these other people who are saying something completely different. So then you have to figure out, okay, who's telling the truth? Yeah, because somebody's not. Exactly. Now, you could have a situation where someone thinks they're telling the truth. They just have a, you know, kind of a messed up view of the relationship, but you wouldn't think Uloma would have a messed up view. She's right in the middle of it. And in the middle of it. And when you know you talk about his co-workers the assumption has to be that he's going in day in and day

out he's talking with all these people right firefighters spend a lot of time with each other they do yeah and so i'm sure they're not lying about it which makes it seem as though he's he's in there kind of bad-mouthing this guy chat he doesn't like him please talk to jack on november 17th She claimed she and Chad were at his house, the night of the murder, watching football. She also claimed she didn't know Chad's last name, his phone number, or his address. This was obviously a red flag to investigators, and they felt as though she was protecting him. Yeah, it sounds like a bunch of BS for sure. You don't know his last name, really.

But yet he stays over all the time. You've been dating for, you know, some period of time. I mean, did you ever date a girl you didn't know her last name? Can we define the word date? You mean like movies and dinner? Yes. No. Investigator subpoenaed Chad's phone records.

But it took until December 2014 to get them. Seems like a while. Yeah, I mean, it's, uh, I mean, this is over a year after the murder occurred. Now, I get it. sometimes phone companies can put up a fight or whatever, but it doesn't seem like it should take that long to get them. It seemed like the investigation hit a wall. But around that time, crime stoppers in the Cleveland Fire Department offered a cash reward. And you and I talk about cash rewards a lot, right? What do they mean? Well, sometimes they don't mean anything.

You can offer money and people deem that it's not enough to come forward. even if they know about it. Sometimes you can offer a lot of money. Nobody comes forward. Yeah, we've had those cases down in Australia where they offer a hundred or more thousand dollars. Yeah. And the cases still are unsolved.

And why is that? Maybe it's because nobody has information. Exactly. Or even with that amount of money, they're too scared to come forward. Yeah. It's just not worth the risk. But in this situation, a man named. Enrique Ramos came forward to report that his friend Isaiah Solomon was approached by Chad

Padgett who offered him money to commit the murder. Solomon confirmed this story and claimed Chad told him he was working for his girlfriend's mother, Yuloma Curry Walker. So the plot thickens. Well, it does. It also, if true, starts to explain a number of things, right? why would you Loma say that the relationship between William and Chad was good, when everybody else seemed to know that it wasn't?

Well, maybe it's because she had a vested interest in protecting Chad because he could implicate her. When reviewing Chad's phone records, police saw a communication pattern between Chad, his girlfriend Jacqueline, and a man named Ryan Dordy. Ryan lived in the Walker's neighborhood and was known for being a burglar and, according to oxygen, trouble on wheels. Not a phrase that a lot of people use, I think, very often. Not. Maybe they used to.

Back in the day. Back in the day. Chad's text specifically said he was trying to buy a ham or a hammer, which police believed was slaying for a handgun. He obtained the same type of handgun. used in the shooting. Phone records showed Chad was at his mother's house early on November 3rd, 2013, but he left home around 7 p.m. and traveled to Lampson Road, where the walkers lived, and was there around the time of the shooting at 8.30 p.m. And almost immediately after the murder was committed, Chad sent out a text that said, we have a body. Okay, not looking great for Chad right now.

It's not. And you know, we're in the digital era here, right? And I think cases that occur in the cell phone era, I'll call it, the time when people had cell phones and we leave such a digital footprint, it's always fascinating. What police are able to glean from not only someone's text messages, because obviously those can tell a story, but the, the tracking of someone's movement. And I don't know what people are thinking. If you're setting out to do something bad, do you not think that your cell phone is at some point going to tell a story? I don't know how many people don't realize that. You know, even back in 2013, did you not know, it's like a little tracking device? Yeah. Because it's been used that way for, you know, many years now.

Yeah. it like nowadays, every app that we have on our phone kind of tells where we are. Police also subpoenaed Yuloma's cell phone and financial records and learned she accumulated significant debt before the murder. She was brought in for another round of questioning and said that they hadn't been experiencing any financial problems. She also said she hadn't been to the doctor since her husband died, which she had been to the doctor. detectives considered unusual because she claimed she had cancer. Well, that would be very strange.

When you have cancer, you're doing follow-up visits, check-up visits, things like that. Why wouldn't she have seen the doctor? Yeah, it just doesn't seem to make sense. But there was no evidence that she actually had cancer. Investigators concluded she lied to possibly expedite a proposal. And there are a lot of low down dirty things that people can do. Sure, there is. Lying about the fact that they have cancer when they don't.

It's on the top of the list. It's up there. Williams' teenage daughter, Melody, also disclosed to police that before Yuloma revealed her diagnosis. Her father told her he was still in love with his ex-wife, Rita Walker, who is Melody's mother. So maybe another reason why Yuloma felt that she had to expedite things. She needs to be married, right? If at some point down the road, she's going to get benefits, life insurance money from Williams' death.

And then if she has any hint that Williams is thinking about leaving the relationship and going back to his ex-wife, she might have gotten desperate. Sure. And that would have been when she hatched the plan to tell everyone she had cancer. Detectives re-interviewed Chad Patchett, took a DNA sample, and it matched the DNA from the shell case. It's found at the crime scene. All right. None of this is looking good for either Chad or Yulam. Investigators are way beyond like the red flag, you know, scenario here. This is, oh, we kind of got you. Yeah. On August 6, 2015, Chad was charged with aggravated murder. Prosecutor said Chad was part of an orchestrated hit on William Walker as shown by his text messages seeking a gun. On September 14th of that year, Ulloma Walker Curry, her daughter Jacqueline, Chad Pageant, and Chad's cousin Christopher Hind were indicted on charges including aggravated murder.

conspiracy and felonious assault. Yuloma was accused of having the co-conspirators kill William so she could collect his life insurance in order to cover out financial fraud. She committed in his name. Yuloma wrote a confession letter the day she surrendered to police, claiming she had William killed because he was abusive. Initially, none of the co-conspirators implicated Yuloma when speaking to detectives or grand juries, but after receiving favorable plea deals and reduced sentences, all of them testified

that Yuloma paid to have William killed. So I think, you know, here we have two things that you and I talk about quite a bit, right? What does a defendant come up with to try to get out from underneath suspicion and in actual charges? Well, here, she's saying, yeah, I killed him, but it was because he was abusing them. And then the second thing is, you know, plea deals, reduce sentences for members of the group to testify against someone. And I think, you know, you have to look at that is kind of one of those necessary evils. Right. You don't want these people to get off lightly, but you got to do what you got to do to make sure you get the conviction on the person who orchestrated the whole thing. Yeah, yeah.

mastermind. Prosecutors agreed not to seek adult charges against Jacqueline, who was held in juvenile detention. While in custody, Chad Pageant made a full confession. He said that Yuloma approached him in October 2013 and asked him to find someone to kill William, claiming he was physically abusive. She said William had a life insurance policy worth $100,000, and she offered Chad a $10,000 payment. She gave him $1,000 up front and another $200 to buy a gun. All right. $200 is not a lot of money to buy a gun, but again, I guess you're not looking for the best of the best. He's looking for something to do, I guess, the job.

Yes, this one job, which seems cold, right, to call it that. But I'm not sure it's that far off the mark of how many of these people think of what they're doing. I think they're that cold. It's like, okay, I'm doing my job. I'm doing a job. When Isaiah Solomon declined his offer to kill William, Chad approached his cousin, Christopher High. Christopher backed out and then recruited Ryan Dordy. On November 3rd, Chad and Ryan went to the Walker home and waited for the signal from Euloma. Chad loaded the gun, which explained why his DNA was on the shell cases. And I know I've talked about that recently. I think that is something that a lot of people don't think about. You know, when you load a magazine with bullets, you are pressing each of those shell casings, most people do it with

their thumb to get them to go down into the magazine one after another, you're essentially leaving not only DNA, but probably a big old thumbprint on every one of them. Yuloma messaged Jacqueline, which served as a signal, and Jackie told Ryan and Chad it was time. Ryan got out of the car and hid behind a garbage can. He shot William four times. When Christopher Hine first spoke to the police. He implicated Chad, but not Yuloma. After lying to the police

and receiving a favorable plea bargain, Christopher contended that Yuloma wanted William killed for money. He admitted he intended to kill William in October 2013, but lost his nerve. He contacted Ryan

Doherty and offered him money to kill William. Chad paid him and provided a gun he obtained through Christopher. On November 3rd, 2013, Christopher and Chad enlisted Christopher's cousin Derek Yoneta to drive Ryan and Chad

from the west side of Cleveland to the east side where Walker lived. Derek was told they were going to buy marijuana. He didn't know the real purpose of the drive. Chad directed Derek to park. At 8.30 p.m. Ryan went to the Walker's

backyard and hid behind a garbage can. Ryan shot William multiple times before he and Chad returned to Derek's car. Derek ordered them out of his car. When he learned they had shot someone. So Ryan and Chad ended up taking a train home. Well, there's a lot of things going on here. I just found it strange that they took the train home. That's what you found strange in all of this. But there's a lot of things going on here that are very strange. Well, I assume they didn't really have many other eyes. options. But think about this guy, Derek. He's hanging out with these people. Maybe he considers them to be

friends. And they say, hey, we're going to go get some weed. Okay. Maybe they're all into that. So he's driving to get or to do what he thinks is going to be, you know, to obtain weed. And the next thing you know, he's involved in a murder. But once they get back to the car and he's realized that he's like, I'm not taking you guys home. And, you know, he takes off, which, you know, obviously that was a good thing for him to do because he probably could have got caught up in it too. Yeah. I mean, you have to say, I'm out. I don't know what's going on, but I'm out of this.

This is crazy. Yeah, this is not what I signed up for. But I think the overarching thing that I really take away from this is just the coordination and how many different people were in. involved, had knowledge of it. Of course you have Ueloma because she's kind of the catalyst for the whole thing. Then you have Chad, you have Jacqueline, but then Chad enlists a couple different people. So you have four, five, six people with knowledge of what is going to happen. But you know what not one person does? And we talk about it all this time, right? No one says, hey, this is a bad idea. No one goes to the police and says, hey, I don't want to be wrapped up in this.

Somebody's going to get killed. And I do want to talk about the money for a minute. Okay. Yuloma is set to inherit $100,000 in life insurance. Yeah. No way anyone's life is worth $100,000. We know that. Chad is going to get $10,000. So now you have to weigh $10,000, versus someone's life. He's paying someone else to actually kill William. So now we have a lower amount, whatever that amount is. It just gets to be ridiculous, the whole thing. That people were willing to kill for such little amount of money.

Yes. Yeah. And I think it illustrates just how little some people value human life. It's a scary thing. it really is it is it used to really bug me when we first started doing the podcast it still bugs me but I'm not surprised anymore because we've heard people being killed for hundreds of dollars yeah I mean you're right it's not surprising but somehow it does still befuddle me in some way yeah that people are willing to go along with some of this stuff Ryan Doherty was later arrested

for multiple robberies, including one where he shot a victim. In 2014, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated robbery. Derek Yenetta was murdered in February 2017 by Dominic Williams, who shot him outside a bar. On April 28, 2016, Jacqueline pleaded guilty to delinquency charges in juvenile court. According to court filings, Yuloma gave her daughter, Kemp. which she gave to Chad, which initiated the series of events leading to William Walker's murder. So, you know, let's face it, right? Delinquency doesn't really seem to fit the bill, but she was a juvenile at the time.

And I'm sure that that played a big role in determining her charges and her ultimate sentence. But there's no doubt she had a great deal of, you know, culpability. in this whole thing. Oh, yeah. In June 2016, Ryan Doherty pleaded guilty to aggravated murder. He agreed to a life sentence

with the possibility of parole after 23 years. So he got 15 for aggravated robbery. He got a life sentence for aggravated murder. Possible parole after 23 years. But he's also got that 15 year sentence. On top of that.

Yeah, I don't think he's going to be. be getting out anytime soon. Also, I think the, the chance of him getting parole after the 23 is probably not great. Yeah. On November 14, 2016, Chad Padgett pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping in exchange for his testimony at Yuloma's trial, he agreed to serve 28 years in prison. On June 21st, 2017, for Hine made a plea deal. In exchange for 18 years in prison, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy after giving a detailed confession. But if his testimony at trial didn't match what he told police, he would lose his plea deal and his confession would be used against him.

That's a good thing to put in there. Yeah. I mean, obviously it is. But it's interesting, right, that he got 18 years. The agreement came hours after jury selection was said to begin. In his trial with Yuloma, Yuloma's attorneys chose to proceed to trial. During opening statements, the jury heard that Yuloma gave away most of her belongings after the murder and moved to North Carolina to stay with a relative. Yuloma left Williams ashes in his car, which was abandoned in a parking lot and repossessed. So this is your husband. A man you are supposedly, right, in love with who shot and killed, you're given his ashes

and you care so much about him that you leave the ashes in his car and just leave the car. Yeah. A lot of love there, isn't it? I mean, it fits, though, right? With everything that we know about her. Yeah, it does. ULoma was nearing financial room after accumulating tens of thousands of dollars in debt. through credit cards and loans, some of which she had taken out in William's name.

She asked her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to find someone to kill William so she could collect insurance money and pay off her debt. However, William had not yet changed the beneficiary of his insurance policy from his ex-wife to Yuloma. So in the end, Gibbs, she didn't get a single scent, which is awesome. I hate to say it that way, but I'm glad she didn't get a cent. Well, she wouldn't have any way because, you know, police figured her out. But, you know, does it go to the point of how little forethought there was in this whole thing? I mean, do you not even make sure that you are the actual beneficiary of the life insurance policy? Before, you make the decision. that you're going to have this guy killed?

You would think it would be one of those important things to figure out, you know, is everything in line with how it needs to be for me to get my money? Defense attorney Robert Dixon said they weren't going to argue which of the co-conspirators killed William. What was in dispute was whether ULoma played the role the prosecution said she did. Cleveland Detective Thomas Lynch testified that Ulloma was being deceitful. during the 911 call she made on the night of the murder. According to State versus Walker Curry, he testified that the biggest indicators in this call,

when I reviewed it, is the term please. Used alone by itself is an indicator of deception. She used it 17 times in this 911 call. Wow, 17 times. Lynch testified that ULoma didn't answer direct questions from the dispatcher. For example, she said, I don't know. When asked who shot her husband, Lynch testified that a common deceptive indicator, again, is when asked a question by a dispatcher,

the caller starts talking to the person that is at the scene, that they're calling for. In this case, I love you, I love you, I love you, was noted being said by ULoma Walker Curry, when asked a question by the dispatcher. Also, another red flag deceptive indicator is repetition. When a caller says things over and over and over again, that in itself is a deceptive indicator. And I get it. This guy's, you know, probably an expert in that field. But I'm sure there are times when people do that.

And it turns out they didn't have anything to do with killing the person they're calling 9-1-1 about, but an indicator is an indicator. What does that mean? Maybe you should check into it. Yeah. The defense moved for a mistrial. During Lynch's testimony, Ueloma's attorney argued there was no basis

for the psychological analysis on behalf of the detective. Their motion was overruled. Ueloma's daughter, Chad Paget, and Christopher Hunt testified that Uloma said she wanted William killed for his insurance money. She offered to pay $10,000 with $1,000 up front for the murder. It's nuts, man. Yeah, the amount of money that we're talking about.

But, you know, here you have not only Chad and Christopher, but her own daughter, right? All three of these individuals testifying that had to be pretty powerful, right, in the courtroom. room. Now, I think you do balance that with the fact that, okay, they're getting deals. Doesn't mean what they're saying is untrue, but you kind of have to take it into account a little bit. Chad testified that he bought a gun from Christopher Hunt for this purpose. All three testified about the failed attempt to kill William in October 2013, which was arranged by you loan. Chad was to be the shooter, but the plans fell through. On the night of the murder, Yuloma called her daughter and told her it was time to come home.

This was the signal that William had laughed to pick up food, and Chad should head to the house to wait for him and kill him. Ryan Doherty testified that he was contacted by Christopher Hunt and Chad on November 3rd and asked if he wanted to make some money. Ryan said yes. Chad and another person picked him up and drove him to Walker's house. Ryan hid behind a garbage camp and waited until William pulled into the driveway. He got out of his car and Ryan shot him as he approached the house.

Ryan was supposed to get $1,000, but Chad only paid him $800. That's the other thing. You got somebody doing this for you. Are you really going to short him on the money you owe him? It seems dangerous. Yeah, it's like, maybe he'll just turn you in or frame you for it or maybe he'll just take you out of the picture and get all the money. But to me, this goes back to the short-sighted thinking on the part of all these people. You're going to shoot and kill somebody for $1,000.

You're going to orchestrate the whole thing for $100,000. Yeah. You're going to be a big part of it for $10,000. I mean, you know, I guess. it. This is a lot of money and it's even more money to certain people than it is others, but you're still talking about a man's life. The state presented forensic evidence that four nine millimeter casings were found in the driveway and two bullets were recovered from William's body. The bullets and casings were fired from a high point gun. The same type of gun, Christopher

Hein sold to Chad Padgett is mentioned Chad's DNA was found on the casings and high point makes a lot of sense here because it is one of the least expensive guns out there yeah it's it's not known to be anywhere close to uh no i shouldn't even say top of the line is the bottom of the barrel not that they don't work it's it's it's not uh it's not a it's not a well-respe brand. It's a very cheap brand. Yeah. So that's where that $200 went. Yeah. I'm surprised you can buy one for $200, but they are fairly inexpensive. They're budget friendly. Yeah, they are. Jacklin testified that she was in the car with Yuloma and Chad. When her mother first brought up the plot, Yuloma asked Chad to tell the shooter to pull Williams' pockets out to make it look like a robbery gone wrong. Yuloma also said,

No one would believe I would hire a bunch of kids to kill someone when I know people that could. Well, you know who's going to believe it? The authorities, when there's a bunch of other people corroborating that story. These so-called kids that she hired. Christopher Hein testified about feeling doubt over committing the murder, saying, as quoted by the plain dealer, I'm going to kill a man. She didn't pay me no money and I started thinking, I'm going to kill a man for nothing. He didn't do anything to me.

He's a firefighter. And all of those are correct. And I'm sure, you know, played a big part in this guy backing out. The problem is he was already a big part of it, right, at this point. Now, he even took it a step further and found somebody else to commit the murder. I don't know what would have happened if he would have just backed out at that point and gone to the authorities. I remember he got 18 years. Yeah.

And he didn't pull the trigger, but he did reach out to Ryan Doherty, who ultimately did. But he did help set some things up. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, he's paying the price, right? 18 years in prison, it's no joke. But also well-deserved. I was going to say, it's well-deserved. You know, you can't get away with doing something like that.

You've got to pay the price. Cell phone records corroborated the co-conspirators' testimony. The state also presented evidence that Uloma cashed a $1,000 check and gave the money to Chad. This check was dated November 1, 2013 and drawn from Williams' account. So she took money out of Williams' account to pay for his murder. This messed up. Enrique Ramos testified that in November, December 2013, he was in his garage working on a car when his friend, Isaiah Solomon, began talking about how Chad and Christopher Hyde attempted to recruit him to kill William Walker. But Solomon declined.

Solomon said that Chad's girlfriend and his girlfriend's mom were involved. Ramos was so disgusted by this conversation that he recorded it and eventually reached out to the point. police. His recording was played for the jury. Finally, we have somebody in this whole saga that that actually did the right thing. Yeah. The state introduced two letters. Ulloma wrote after the murder in the presence of her daughter and Macklin Hines Jr., who is her ex and the father of her children. Ueloma's first letter said, in part, I Yuloma Curry Walker, hereby told Chad Padgeon to kill William Walker. Her second letter was addressed to her son. She apologized and told him to be a good man. Okay, pretty hard to argue against those letters.

Some pretty compelling evidence. How do you going to argue that? Yeah, I think it would be really tough. In closing arguments, the defense pointed out discrepancies and witnessed testimony and suggested it was Jacqueline who made the plot. The defense pointed to a family trip to Ireland, that the daughter wasn't allowed to go on as a possible motivation. She also accompanied Chad and Christopher on the failed murder attempt. Okay, I get that. They have to try to ship the blame somewhere else. But if you're weighing the two sides. Jacqueline wants William dead because what, she's not allowed to go on this trip to Ireland versus Yuloma thinks she's going to collect $100,000 and has racked up massive amounts of debt in both her name and in William's name. To me, those motivations don't even compare.

The defense didn't call a single witness who testified that William was abusive as Yuloma had claimed. On July 7, 2017, Yeloma Curry Walker was found guilty of aggravated murder, conspiracy, murder, and felonious assault. She was convicted on what would have been her four-year wedding anniversary with William. On August 8th of that year, she was sentenced to life without parole for aggravated murder. with 11 years for conspiracy and six years for firearm specification. So, you know, I think when you look at the sentences that everybody got, ULoma got the biggest sentence by far, because she was the catalyst,

or as you would say, the mastermind, right? She's the reason that any of this happened at all. It wasn't for her. None of this would have happened. Right. And then you have Ryan.

who actually pulled the trigger. He got life, but with the possibility of parole. And then, you know, the sentences kind of go down from there, but everybody was held accountable. I think the person who got off the lightest was obviously Jacqueline.

Yeah. You know, she spent some time in juvenile detention, but it was nowhere near what everybody else received. Christopher Heinz expected parole. eligibility date is scheduled for August 23. Ryan Doherty's next parole board hearing is scheduled for June 2038.

Chad will be eligible for parole in June 2043. It's a long time away. It is. I mean, all of them are, but for good reason. I mean, he's rewrap this thing up, Gibbs. Yeah, we said it early on. William Walker was a kind, generous person who dedicated his life. to serving his community when his girlfriend told him she had cancer.

He married her so that she would have better health insurance, not knowing that the whole thing was a lot. Instead, Ueloma plotted to have her husband killed so she could pay off debt, but failed to realize that she was not yet the beneficiary of Williams' life insurance. She didn't receive any money and is now serving life in prison for her crime, which is exactly where she should be. Absolutely. It's where she belongs. And in my mind, I think she should spend the rest of her life there. You know, what she also did, though, is she messed up the lives of a bunch of other people. She really did. And I can't believe that these individuals were so stupid to, one,

take somebody's life for such a little amount of money, ruin their lives for such a little amount of money. I mean, think about it. You got one guy in prison probably for the rest of his life. Maybe he'll get parole. Maybe he won't for a thousand dollars. Of which he only got 800. Yeah. You know, it's you took somebody's life and you're sitting in prison for the rest of your life. Was that really worth $800? No. I mean, that it's just, it's unbelievable to me that when faced with, you know, this kind of notion, people go away. along with it so easily. It's like they're not even using the brain.

Like, are you really thinking this through? I'm doing something illegal that will put me in prison for the rest of my life. And I'm taking a good person's life for $1,000. It should automatically in your head click, like, that's not a great deal. I should not be doing this. I shouldn't be doing it at all. But I definitely shouldn't be doing it for $1,000. I don't get it.

Yeah, but it's part of the fascination. Oh, it is. How can these people sit around, talk about it, rationalize it, and then ultimately make decision that, yeah, this is what we're going to do. I mean, they could say, well, if you come from a place where you're struggling and you don't have any money and $1,000 is like, you know, $100,000 to me when I'm struggling, I still, I think, I don't, I still don't buy it. I don't know how you get to that thought process.

And I'll never understand it. I really don't think I ever will. No. No. And if you did or could, I don't know what that would say about you. But that's it for our episode on William Walker. We got some voicemails. You want to check those out.

Let's hear them. Hi, this is Carrie from North Dakota. I just wanted to call and say that I really enjoyed this week's podcast between true crime all the time and unsolved. I saw somebody had posted in a local Facebook group that they were selling used 55-gallon drums, and my first thought literally was they used those for bodies or something. I just thought that was kind of funny and figured I'd share. Keep your own time ticking and have a great day.

Facebook group that they were selling used 55 gallon drums. And my first thought literally was they used those for bodies or something. I just thought that was kind of funny and figured I'd share. Keep your own time ticking and have a great day. They use those for bodies or something. I just thought that was kind of funny. Yeah, I mean, if you're into true crime, I don't know how you would see a post like that about 50 gallon drums.

and not think. One, they've either already been used or, you know, somebody's buying these to use them for that. Now, I get it, 50-gallon barrels are used for all kinds of things. Oh, absolutely. But they very often are used to hide bodies. Well, 55-gallon drum, you could easily get a body in there. And it's been done many, many times.

It has. Hey, Mike and Giddy, it's Kaylee from Ottawa. I've been a long-time listener in the background for a long time, and I was just listening to your Jose Heron case, and at the end of it, you were mentioning how in Montreal, everything's French, and in Ontario, everything's English and French, and it's actually Canada-wide that products sold in Canadian stores, have to be both bilingual in Canada and French, or English and French.

And the only reason I know this is because I'm in the warehouse industry, and it is a whole thing. So, yeah, Montreal doesn't really abide by the rules, but the rest of the place, the rest of the country has to. It sucks for us. But, yeah, anyways, love you guys. Keep it up. I will continue lurking in the background.

Bye. She's out there lurking. Lurking. It's lurking. That's great information. It is. It is. It is.

Thank you for that. All right, buddy. That is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.