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Waller found not guilty

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Updated: 7/30/2011 7:00 am

Published: 7/29/2011 7:46 pm

CONWAY, AR – After nine hours of deliberation, a jury found Cortez Waller not guilty on all counts in the shooting death of Chris Childress.

Waller was charged with 2nd degree murder and aggravated assault when he shot Childress in the parking lot of the Conway Police Department last July. The shooting happened in front of Childress’ three children and their mother. Waller immediately turned himself in to police after the incident.

At times, the four-day trial was extremely emotional. Several witnesses cried while testifying, and at one point the judge called a 15 minute recess so a witness could compose herself.

After the judge read the not guilty verdict Friday night several people in the courtroom were visibly stunned. Deranda Carter, who has three children with Childress and admits to cheating on him with Cortez Waller, had to be carried out of the courthouse by family.

Darlene Weathers, Childress’ mother, was in a state of disbelief. “What’s happened to the world when a person can gun somebody down in front of a police station, and in front of his three children, and then walk away? Where is justice anymore?”

Waller testified that he had been threatened several times by Childress and that Childress followed him to the police department and came at him in an aggressive manner. Waller’s attorney, Frank Shaw, argued that the shooting was done in self defense.

Shaw said the verdict was not cause for celebration. “Two families have been seriously damaged. One has lost a life, the other, Waller’s family, has been damaged forever by this charge. Even though he’s acquitted, he’ll carry this burden with him forever.”

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sparrowhawk60 - 2/6/2012 12:27 AM

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It's still a well known fact the outcome is usually decided by money and who you know. Hope she can live with herself as had she acted like she should have NO ONE would be dead.There are alot of victims in this case. She is by no means innocent.

LPete - 8/1/2011 9:41 AM

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I sat in on the whole trial (and now know the whole story) and in fact, I was present when the actual shooting took place. It's an extremely unfortunate situation and I'm sorry for Chris's family... but I believe justice was served.

Monroe - 7/30/2011 5:37 PM

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Well, her boyfriend is dead now, so she don't have to worry about making him mad anymore by cheating on him.

THE SHADOW - 7/30/2011 5:27 PM

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if you listened to the trial the man had reason to fear for his life he then legally purchased a weapon for the purposes of self defense. he carried that weapon on his persons legally and was further stalked and had more than reasonable believe that his persons was in danger as stated by witnesses and seen on the video he then carried out his constitutional right of self defense. He should have never been charged to start with this is part of the checks and balances of our system the prosecutor has the legal irresponsibility to file charges only when they are warranted. so The voters of Faulkner county need to be asking them selves was this a wise use of there tax dollars and who should be held accountable? Unfortunately it is to easy for them to say well if a man is innocent then a judge or jury will find him so. Again passing the buck. Sad to say this is more and more common and this is why there are more rape and death row cases being over turned for lack of evidence and poor investigating by the prosecuting attorney and his deputy's again part of there job NOT necessarily the police. The same was the case in the Casey Anthony trial lack of any solid evidence and the unnecessarily dramatized testimony of DR.G the lead the jury to have to carry out there constitutional obligation to find her not guilty. not that she wasn't necessarily guilty of some form of homicide. Just that again the prosecutor failed in his presenting of the evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was guilty of first degree murder and not say negligent homicide! that had they been able to convict her of they probably would have. I say this as a second generation law enforcement officer my self and having served on a few jury's until you have done these two things it is very hard if not impossible to understand the verdicts in these two cases. If you believe in true justice it will eventually reserved just look at O.J. !!!

pac72034 - 7/30/2011 5:08 PM

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I will say this, everytime a person is found not guilty of a homicide the general public cries out "Injustice". From a law enforcement background, all we "law enforcement" can do is gather all the evidence, make an arrest and then turn it over to the prosecutor. The prosecutor then has to prove the case before a jury. A jury is made up of citizens in a community. It doesn't matter if the prosecutor makes a strong case or not, if the jury says "Not Guilty" then that is the verdict. Blame the shooter, the judge, the prosecutor, and blame the jury if you want but in the end the facts were layed out and a jury found that there was not enough evidence to say that the person in question acted in malice and without regard to anyone else. The justice system worked based on the way it was designed to work. Want to change the "system"? You start by becoming a registered voter. Voting changes the system. Also when you become a voter you will get the chance to sit on a jury and see how hard some cases can truely be.

christy365 - 7/30/2011 2:34 PM

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I believe childress had a weapon and had threatened waller in the past.deranda effed up big time.i know its going to be hard living with the fact that your kids dont have a dad and its your fault.childress was out of control you could clearly see this on the video.i mean come on now...confront someone like that when your kids are in the car.what if this guy was just sychotic and killed them all.i hate it for both families and this should be a lesson to us all.

cohair2723 - 7/30/2011 1:34 PM

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Any man that finds out that his girlfriend/baby momma is cheating on them with another man,of course they're going to be upset and might even confront the other man. Deranda addmitted to cheating on childress with waller and things just got out of hand. waller claimed that he had been threatened by chlidress several times, so i guess that gave waller the benefit of the doubt to go get a registered gun.Why did he take a gun to the police station anyway? did he figure childress was going to follow him? how did childress know were he was going? was it childress intention to follow waller? and if waller knew he was being harrassed by a man because he was having sex with his girl, why didn't he go get a restraining order/order of protection that's what they would of told us? i think there should of been a different judgement and if childress didn't have a gun/weapon then there wasn't any reason for waller to shoot childress unless he just didnt want to deal with the harrassement....

marietta - 7/30/2011 11:37 AM

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Yes, Waller did have a permit. He got the gun not long before the actual shooting to protect himself from Childress. Childress had threatened Waller numerous times and went so far as to stalk him at his job. Childress was known to carry a knife which could have possible been taken off his body after he was shot. I believe justice was served!!!

brenda62 - 7/30/2011 10:58 AM

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it's known that man is not able to Judge anything! For this reason Judgement belongs to "GOD", so if you think about it THERE ARE NO MYSTERIES IN HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!. He will be JUDGED by the Supreme "JUDGE".

sjn12 - 7/30/2011 12:24 AM

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Not guilty of anything at all? Not even assualt? Here's some discrimination for you, black on black? was okay-- but a white man defending his self against two black punks plus protecting his employees and his property and his life against strangers with no heads up is rotting in jail don't see many post now about how he should be in jail and that he didn't have to kill him to protect himself---????

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