Selma suspect receives long prison sentence

Published 8:31 am Thursday, August 15, 2019

A Selma resident received a prison sentence totaling 60 years in prison from a case that occurred in 2011.

Joseph Walters Jr., was sentenced Wednesday by Dallas County Circuit Court Judge Collins Pettaway to 30 years each for two counts of shooting into an occupied building. The sentences will run concurrent, according to Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson.

Jackson said Walters still has a pending capital murder case on these same set of facts. Walters is accused of murder in the shooting death of 48-year-old Rodney Walters on New Year’s Day in 2011. Walters allegedly fired multiple shots into a car occupied by Rodney Walters and Timothy Moore, killing Walters and injuring Moore.

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Investigators obtained surveillance video from Wal-Mart of Joseph Walters purchasing ammunition for a high-powered rifle the day before the shooting.

“This was not this gunslinger’s first rodeo of shooting at folks, he has two prior felony convictions,” Jackson said.