Kaalan Walker has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison after being convicted of raping four women and three teenage girls he met on social media.
Source: Sonia Recchia / Getty
According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, the 27-year-old was instructed by Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Wallace said she considers the actor to be “truly a predator.”
Back in April, a jury in Van Nuys, California, found Walker guilty of three counts of forcible rape, one count of assault to commit oral copulation, two counts of statutory rape and two counts of rape by intoxication. At the time, the jury found Walker not guilty of one count of digital penetration and two counts of forcible rape.
Beginning in 2013, Walker used Instagram and Twitter to contact women on social media, promising them opportunities for professional work and to meet celebrities, prosecutors said, according to Rolling Stone. Over the next two years, the SuperFly actor would get the women alone and then sexually assault them, police said.
“When they said, ‘Stop,’ he didn’t care,’ ” Deputy District Attorney Yasmin Fardghassemi said at the time, according to City News Service and NBC Los Angeles.
Walker was first arrested in Van Nuys in 2018, after authorities connected him to the chain of sexual assaults.
Following his conviction in April, Walker’s lawyersaid in a statement to USA Today that his client “maintains his innocence” and “did not receive a fair trial as many important issues were excluded by the Court.”
“The pattern of Mr. Walker is to make false promises and they bought it. … Each one of these women voluntarily made their own decisions,” said defense lawyer Andrew Flier said, according to NBC 4. “He didn’t force them. … It’s payback to Mr. Walker and we’re not going to let that happen.”
Welp.
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