CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — A Clarksville man has been sentenced to 37 years in prison in connection with crossing state lines to kidnap, shoot, and stalk his ex-girlfriend and her family.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Tennessee, Keatron Walls, 37, drove from Clarksville to his ex-girlfriend's house in DeSoto County, Mississippi, on Nov. 23, 2016. Walls' ex-girlfriend lived at the house with several family members. Armed with a Norinco AK-47 style automatic rifle, Walls fired at least 10 shots from the front yard into the home's living room window. Four of the seven people inside the house were shot. One of those victims lost his leg due to the shooting, and another victim lost a finger. The victims weren't able to see the shooter, and Walls got away before law enforcement arrived.
DeSoto County Sheriff's Department personnel recovered six spent shell casings outside the house as evidence. Walls presented a false alibi to law enforcement about his whereabouts during the shooting. Investigators were able to disprove that alibi through further investigation.
Less than 18 months later, on April 20, 2018, Walls kidnapped his ex-girlfriend, her five-year-old daughter, and her boyfriend from their apartment in Memphis. He forced the victim to drive them in her car to a nearby location, where Walls's car was parked. He retrieved an AK-47 style rifle from his car and put it into the trunk of the victim's car. After that, he told the victim to drive back to her apartment, where he forced her to lock her daughter inside the apartment by herself. He then told her to drive to a house in Marshall County, Mississippi, where Walls's relative lived. When they arrived at the house, Walls forced both victims out of the car, onto their knees, and fired three gunshots past their heads. After arguing with three family members about whether he should let the victims go, Walls directed both victims back into the car. He forced them to drive into Shelby County, where officers were able to stop the car and rescue both victims.
Forensic ballistics testing showed that the AK-47 style rifle in the car's trunk matched the spent shell casings recovered from the Nov. 23, 2016, shooting in DeSoto County.
Walls was sentenced to a total of 37 years in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release Thursday. He was found guilty of four counts of kidnapping, one count of interstate stalking resulting in permanent disfiguration of a victim, and one count of using a firearm to commit interstate stalking. There's no parole in the federal system.
