Jury finds Duval Walker guilty of murder in Marion bar shooting

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids man will spend the rest of life in prison for fatally shooting a man after picking a fight with him on St. Patrick’s Day last year at a Marion bar.

A Linn County jury deliberated less than two hours Wednesday before convicting Duval T. Walker Jr., 30, of first-degree murder and going armed with intent in the fatal shooting of Cameron Barnes, 32, of Cedar Rapids.

Walker showed no visible reaction when the verdict was read, and the jurors were polled individually to confirm their verdict.

Before his trial, which started last Tuesday, Walker pleaded to one of the charges filed in the case — possession of a firearm by a felon.

He faces life without the possibility for parole on the murder charge. His sentencing is set for April 26 in Linn County District Court.

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“The jury reached the correct verdict based on the evidence presented,” Assistant Linn County Attorney Andrew Powers told The Gazette after the verdict. “The video surveillance was so clear in this case.”

What happened?

The jurors saw the surveillance video from the bar several times during the trial, and Marion police Sgt. Nicole Hotz reviewed the video for the jury.

Hotz, who was an investigator in 2023, testified Walker approached Barnes a little before 11 p.m. and, after yelling at him, threw the first punch as Barnes turned his head away from Walker.

According to evidence, friends of Barnes and Walker then got involved in the fight, as well as a few other patrons of Cocktails & Co., 1625 Blairs Ferry Rd., on March 17, 2023.

At some point, Walker picked up a handgun off the floor that apparently had fallen out of someone’s pocket during the fight.

The video showed a bar security employee, in trying to separate the two men, grabbed Barnes and moved him through the crowded bar toward the entrance, with Walker following them. When they got to the bar area, Walker started running toward Barnes and fired a single fatal shot.

The video showed Walker running past Barnes lying on the floor and leaves the bar.

Police did not recover the weapon during their investigation.

Investigators watched the surveillance footage from the bar’s parking lot to track the vehicle Walker left in, which wasn’t registered to him, to identify the shooter, Hotz said. Witnesses at the bar that night also identified Walker as the shooter, who U.S. marshals detained in Waterloo.

Walker’s defense

Walker claimed self-defense but didn’t testify at trial, which is his right. Most defendants charged with murder are advised by their lawyers not to testify.

The defense called two witnesses. One was a former girlfriend and mother of Walker’s four children. She testified that Barnes in February 2022 followed her and brandished a gun while trying to get her to pull over her car.

The other witness was a Cedar Rapids police officer who responded to the girlfriend’s report. Barnes was not charged.

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