Jury begins deliberations today on Death vs. Life in prison
From the McKinney Star Courier-Gazette:
The final day of the punishment phase of Kosoul Chanthakoummane’s capital murder trial came to a somber close as members of Sarah Anne Walker’s family testified how her brutal murder left a mark on their families.
The jury heard from two members of Walker’s family before both sides closed their cases. Jackie Mull, Walker’s younger sister, described the phone call she received from a McKinney Police Department official when she learned her sister had been killed. She said she received a call from McKinney PD Capt. Randy Roland, who advised her to pull over if she was driving. She wondered if something happened to her parents, but she eventually realized her sister, Walker, worked in McKinney.
Mull also said Walker loved spending time with her then-4-year-old son, Josh.“Sarah liked to play with Josh,” Mull said. “He liked to play cars with her. She was also very adventurous. She liked to do fun things like take Josh to Six Flags or the water park.”
Dawn Tate, Randy Tate’s mother and Walker’s mother-in-law, said she feels Josh simply “misses his mom.”
She said the family sought counseling for Josh and has tried to tell him the truth “without the gory details” based on the advice of their counselor.
“In the beginning when Randy tried to tell him, he covered his ears and ran screaming through the house,” Mrs. Tate said. “Randy consoled him and brought him into the bedroom and tried to tell him his mother had been murdered for a watch and a ring. He cried and screamed and asked to get the doctor to put her back together and make her well again.”
After that day, Josh occasionally suffers emotional “meltdowns,” grinds his teeth and has nightmares in his sleep. Mrs. Tate said she tries to curb his fears about bad dreams by telling him to turn his pillow over to the good dreams on the other side.
“It’s just been overwhelming for him to think he doesn’t have his mommy,” Mrs. Tate said.
