Cape Girardeau man's trial for killing infant begins Tuesday

UPDATE: Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said Monday morning that a plea deal had been reached and that the jury has been released of duty.

The Cape Girardeau man accused of killing his infant son will stand trial Tuesday.

Allen R. Walker is charged with second-degree murder and child endangerment in connection with the death of his 7-week-old son in August 2010. He pleaded not guilty in October 2010.

Walker was tasked with watching his infant twins Aug. 22, 2010. When the twins' mother, Ashley Locklear, came home that day, she noticed bruises on her son's face and head, she testified in September 2010.

After scans and X-ray examinations at a hospital, the infant was airlifted to a hospital in St. Louis. Doctors in Cape Girardeau and St. Louis discovered skull fractures, bruising on the child's face and rib fractures that were already healing at the time of the child's death, according to court records.

The infant died four days later on Aug. 26, 2010.

Walker told police that the child sustained the injuries when a playpen fell on him while Walker was watching him, according to court records.

The responding police officer's sworn affidavit notes that the child's injuries appear to be consistent to Walker's wedding band.

During a preliminary hearing in August 2010, Dr. Jane Turner, an assistant medical examiner for the city of St. Louis, said she found skull fractures and bleeding around the brain and in the retinas. The injuries were not consistent with what Walker told police, Turner testified.

Turner said the injuries were consistent with the ones she had seen in other abuse cases, however.

"Those types of injuries, retinal injuries, are seen in cases of children who are shaken violently, but also are seen in children with massive crushing injuries of the head," she testified in August 2010.

The trial was slated to begin in October 2011, but was pushed back because Walker got a new lawyer.

Walker's lawyer, Mary Patricia Tucka, did not return a call seeking comment Friday.

Jury selection for Walker's trial will be in Benton, Mo., today, and the trial will begin in Jackson on Tuesday.

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