Father vows fight for justice after sentencing in Molly Conley shooting death

Erick Walker will learn his fate Tuesday as a Snohomish County judge sentences him for the shooting death of 15-year-old Molly Conley.

A jury convicted Walker, 28, late last month of manslaughter and nine other crimes for the shooting and a series of drive-by shootings that spanned Lake Stevens to Marysville.

Molly’s father John spent the day before the sentencing thinking about what to say to the court and Walker when he gets a chance to speak at the proceeding.

Jury convicts Erick Walker of manslaughter in Molly Conley shooting

While he calls it an important part of the process because Walker is almost certain to spend the rest of his life in prison, for John and Molly’s other family and friends, there will never be any closure

“None of this stuff closes anything. I’ve sat in on some of these sentencing hearings and you hear the judge say ‘well, we hope we’ve brought you some comfort.’ It’s none of that. It’s just another step in the journey,” John said.

It’s a devastating journey that began June 1, 2013 as Molly and five friends walked along a dark Lake Stevens road as they celebrated her 15th birthday. At least one shot was fired from a passing car prosecutors say was driven by Walker, striking and killing Molly.

John remains angry and frustrated the jury couldn’t convict Walker of murder, even though it did find him guilty of manslaughter.

While convictions on all of the crimes will likely bring what equates to life in prison, he argues the evidence – including video showing his car on the street at the time of the shooting – proves Walker fired the shot, even if the bullet was never recovered.

“At the end of the day what’s it going to be for assaulting our six girls for murdering Molly he serves 12 of those years for that? That’s not enough, that’s not just

Conley says they were lucky in this case because Walker was convicted of nine other counts for his shooting spree around Lake Stevens that ensures he will remain behind bars.

But he worries about other cases that don’t have so many other counts. He vows to work for changes to the system to eliminate some of the roadblocks that prevented the jury from convicting Walker of murder.

Jurors confirm all but one voted in favor of a murder conviction, but a lone holdout prevented it. John says he’ll work tirelessly to support a measure that died in committee in the legislature this year that would change the law to allow convictions on an 11-1 count rather than requiring a unanimous verdict.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Edirin Okoloko told the Everett Herald after the conviction he was “comfortable” with the verdict, drawing John’s ire.

“To not look back at this and say ‘why, why did this happen? How can we prevent it from happening?’ Not to be comfortable, not to be satisfied, but to recognize this is wrong and we’re going to fix it. That is the right response to this,” John said.

John and other family members will have 30 minutes to address the court. But he says it most certainly will not be the last time he speaks out, both for Molly and in hopes of easing the pain for other families who’ll inevitably face a similar tragedy.

“If she were one of the five survivors she would not be satisfied with this and that’s a way to remember her and that’s what we’re going to work on. We’re not going to make it better but hopefully we can make it less tragic,” John said.