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Walker Lumpkin Left Alone with Teen when He was Injured
Walker Lumpkin Left Alone with Teen when He was Injured 8/27/12
schilders@cbs7.com
CBS 7 News
August 27, 2012
ODESSA, TX - Today a teenager accepted a plea-deal for the murder of 4-year-old Walker Lumpkin.
It's a trial that was delayed over and over keeping all the families involved unsettled, but tonight there is some sense of closure.
Walker Lumpkin left this world the same way he came into it, fighting for his life.
Born premature at 25 weeks he was hooked up to tubes and IV's and four years later that's how he died.
"Seeing my son hooked up on tubes a second time in his life just for me to be able to tell him goodbye and tell him I love him, and tell him that I'm sorry that I couldn't protect him, it hurts.” Walker’s mother Stephanie Swindell spoke with us today over the phone from Tennessee where she lives.
Walker died in a Lubbock hospital after being taken off life support.
The little boy had been living with his father in Odessa for less than four months when he died.
The person charged with his death is a 14-year-old who is not related to him, but was living in the same household.
"Just knowing that he was actually the one that did the stuff to my son, it gives me a little bit of ease knowing who did it," said Swindell.
Sheriff Mark Donaldson tells us Walker was at home alone with the teen when he sustained blunt force trauma to his head.
The Ector County Sheriff's Office never determined a motive or an exact murder weapon, but did collect baseball bats among other items from the home.
"Through autopsy and talking to doctors and things it appeared to be a cylindrical object that Walker was struck with."
This teen was also charged with injury to a child after a neighbor called 911 when she saw him run over Walker with a four-wheeler, an incident that happened a week before Walker's death.
“I feel like there should have been a lot more justice served in that case,” said Swindell.
"He was just a wonderful human being. My son loved everybody he came into contact with, he was mesmerizing."
The teen was ordered to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department where based upon his behavior he can be held up to age 19.
Judge Jim Bobo recommended that the teen participate in the serious violent offender treatment program.