In the early hours of June 10, 2005, University student Phillip Gillins took a sharp punch to the face. He fell back, cracking his head on the pavement of the alley next to Hodgepodgeon East 13th Avenue, and within two days he was dead.
Despite sentencing one man to prison for the 22-year-old’s death, who threw the fatal punch is still being questioned.
This past April a jury convicted Darrell Sky Walker of manslaughter and assault, sending him to prison for more than six years. After his conviction, an article in the Eugene Weekly states that Walker’s attorney requested a new trial based on evidence that suggests another man, Bryan “J.D.” Beall, punched Gillins.
The EW article states that Walker testified in the original case that while he had been drinking and acting aggressively, he did not punch Gillins and that Beall did. Beall refused to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Walker has since hired a new attorney,
Daniel Goff, who requested a new trial.
An eyewitness, granted anonymity for fear of reprisal, said “I’m not sure why he’s going for a retrial.”
The witness was walking by and stumbled upon the confrontation. The witness knew Gillins through a friend and was shocked to see him lying on the ground
with his eyes rolled back in his head.
The witness said that Beall was upset, angry and yelling threateningly. The witness stood with his or her back to Walker “because (Walker) was the one with his shirt off, he was the most vocal. If he hit me it wouldn’t be as bad on my back as it would on my face
or chest.”
“I’d never seen something like that,” the witness said. “Every time I walk by that alley I think about it.”
Walker, Beall, and Ryan Joyce, whose testimony some say could clear Walker and condemn Beall, could not be reached for comment, nor could their attorneys, the district attorney prosecutors nor the judge, Gregory Foote, be reached for comment.
Gillins’ friend Anthony Boulis said he knew who threw the punch when asked in an interview with the Emerald.”Darrell did,” he said.
“There’s no way it was the other guy. Yeah, it’s not possible,” Boulis said.
“There’s nothing that would make me change my story,” he said.
According to the EW article, other witnesses offered conflicting views of what actually happened that night, including Beall’s girlfriend and another one of his friends who testified both said that Beall told them separately that he had thrown the punch. Despite this evidence, the EW article states, the court did not issue a warrant for Beall’s arrest, only for Walker’s.
According to court records, the trial will reconvene on the morning of
June 30.
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