Drug-Addicted Neighbor Sentenced In 88-Year-Old Woman’s Murder
Irvington, NJ – Yvonne Walker, 47, was convicted in February of the June 2011 slaying of Casetta Blunt. Blunt was an 88-year-old neighbor woman Walker did odd jobs for in exchange for cash.
When Walker was first arrested in June she was held on a $1 million bond and charged with murder, robbery, and weapons offenses.
Police taped Walker’s confession where she admitted to attacking the elderly woman, but only after Walker was provoked. She alleged Blunt struck her with a cane first, striking her in the mouth and splitting her lip.
Blunt’s lifeless body was found on the living room floor inside her Irvington home with 11 stab wounds and a kitchen knife still lodged in her body. In addition to being stabbed, Blunt’s skull was also bludgeoned with a brick. It sat atop a pillow which was covering Blunt’s face at the time her body was discovered.
Walker blamed drugs and Blunt’s cane-baiting for the murder. The jury dismissed the defense’s claims that Walker had simply lost control, instead assessing the slaying had been performed with the intent of stealing valuables from Blunt’s home. It was alleged the argument which led up to the stabbing stemmed over $40.
Walker’s drug addiction began sometime after 2001 when herniated discs prevented her from continuing on with her nursing job. A habitual use of painkillers led to a dependency of more serious narcotics.
Walker pled for mercy prior to sentencing, weeping as she stated she had not meant to harm the old woman. “I just like totally lost it and blacked out when she hit me.” Walker advocated to being a good person.
The assistant prosecutor requested 50 years. Walker’s 27-year-old daughter Natasha requested the judge impose the minimum sentence of 30 years, again blaming her mother’s drug and alcohol addiction as the principle cause. Instead Judge Peter Vasquez levied a 45 year prison term with an additional 5-year concurrent penalty for theft against Walker for her heinous crime.
[Image via Shutterstock]
