As the families of both victims grieve, testimony in the trial continued Thursday. Prosecutors presented evidence relating to the death of 34-year-old Michael Walker, which occurred about 12 hours before that of Hale. Mays says he only intended to scare Walker, not kill him, when he shot at him.
Prosecutors spent most of Thursday questioning witnesses about Walker's death. The state contends that Walker was shot in the head by Mays as he drove his pickup truck away from a crack house on Quarry Street in July of last year.
Witnesses have testified that Walker was involved in physical fight with several men just before the shooting. Walker's ex-wife Susan listened in the courtroom as investigators described the scene.
"He was slumped over the steering wheel," said CCBI Investigator Phil Robbins. "His arms were down by his side. In the king cab window, I guess you'd call it, on the left side, there was a hole. There was a hole in the back of [Walker's] head."
Walker's death has been overshadowed by that of Hale, because of Hale's position as an officer of the law. Those in the courtroom Thursday heard that Michael Walker was addicted to crack cocaine. He was also married, came to the Triangle from Pennsylvania in the early 1990's, held several professional jobs in the area, and was well-liked by members of his community.
Later in that July day, police say Mays took a taxi to Lenoir Street where he walked into a stake-out of police who were waiting for him. That's when he allegedly fired the fatal shot at Hale.
"I grabbed the walkie-talkie which we had right there," Detective William Medlin testified. "And started telling Raleigh-1, which is our main dispatch channel, that we had ... gunshots."
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