Richard Waller

The Crime

On June 13, 1993, Shelton Johnson was shot and killed at a Durham apartment. Durham Police Department (DPD) officers responding to the incident found seven shell casings in the area around the rear of the house along with a bullet hole at the top of the stairs. During the autopsy conducted on Johnson’s body, three bullets were collected from gunshot wounds on Johnson’s left breast, left jaw, and upper right arm. The entry wounds had a downward trajectory.

Following the murder, officers interviewed Johnson’s parents, who said that a year before his death, Johnson had given them a note that said, “If something happen[s] to me, Larry Gene Richmond did it.” An informant also told officers that Johnson’s death was in retaliation for the shooting of a 14-year-old boy and named several suspects, including Richmond.

Ten years later, Johnson’s murder was still a cold case. A federal inmate named Kendrick Doakes received a grant of immunity from the Durham District Attorney’s Office for any Durham County crimes he committed in exchange for information that would help solve Durham crimes. Doakes then implicated himself in Johnson’s murder and claimed to have been with Richard Waller, Antonio Davenport, and Timothy Evans when Evans allegedly shot and killed Johnson. Doakes also implicated himself in two other murders. Despite Doakes’ statement, DPD took no further action until roughly a year and a half later, when an investigator re-interviewed Doakes in July 2005.

After the second interview with Doakes, DPD officers brought Waller and Davenport in to be interviewed, under false pretenses, on August 11, 2005, so they were unaware they were about to be interviewed about their involvement in the murder of Johnson. After prolonged interviews and threats, the two men went from denying any involvement to signing statements, written by law enforcement, that implicated themselves and Evans in the murder of Johnson. Curiously, neither Waller’s nor Davenport’s statements included anything about Doakes being involved.

Using the statements from Waller and Davenport, DPD arrested Timothy Evans on August 11, 2005, and on February 20, 2006, Evans was indicted with one count of first-degree murder. Despite implicating themselves in the murder of Johnson in their interviews with Sgt. Cates and Detective Baker, Waller and Davenport were allowed to leave after their interviews without an arrest.

Almost four years later, after Evans maintained his innocence, Waller and Davenport were arrested for murder.  After being threatened with the death penalty or life in prison, both men accepted plea offers from the State which gave them substantial concessions in exchange for their promise to testify “truthfully” at Evans’ trial.  Waller pled guilty to second degree murder and served four years in prison while Davenport pled guilty to obstruction of justice and served two years of probation.

The Trial

Evans’ trial began on May 12, 2009, and the State relied almost entirely on the testimony of Waller and Davenport, even remarking in opening statements that “what this case comes down to is Waller and Davenport.” The State’s theory was that Evans killed Johnson in the presence of Waller and Davenport in retaliation for Johnson robbing Waller. The State provided no eyewitness testimony or physical evidence that corroborated the testimony. In fact, the testimony that Johnson was shot on the 2^nd floor from across the street contradicted the location of the casings and the autopsy showing the wounds had a downward trajectory.

During his testimony, Davenport admitted that when signing the statement written by law enforcement in 2005, he did not tell the officers if anything they had written was incorrect and that he signed the statement because he was instructed to sign it by law enforcement and believed that he had to. Evans’ trial attorney did not put on any evidence in his defense and Kendrick Doakes’ name was never mentioned during the trial.

On May 15, 2009, the jury returned a guilty verdict of Second-Degree Murder against Evans who was sentenced to 45 years on November 30, 2009.

Postconviction Center Involvement

In 2016, Timothy Evans applied to have his case investigated by NCCAI. Although Davenport did not want to discuss the case out of fear of retaliation and revocation of his plea, Waller met with Center staff and explained that his testimony at Evans’ trial was not truthful. Waller signed an affidavit stating that the confession he gave to law enforcement in 2005 and his testimony at Evans’ trial in 2009 were both false. He stated that he was “not involved [in] Shelton Johnson’s murder” and that he did “not know who killed him.” Waller further stated that law enforcement told him that there were multiple witnesses who said he was involved in Johnson’s murder, but that if he implicated Evans as the shooter, he would be allowed to go home. Scared and without an attorney, he signed the statement falsely implicating Evans so he could receive a plea agreement with a maximum term of ten years imprisonment, instead of the full thirty years, and get back to his family and newborn child.

On July 15, 2022, the Center filed a Motion for Appropriate Relief with Waller’s affidavit and asked that Evans’ charge be dismissed or he be granted a new trial. Judge Edwin Wilson  entered an order concluding that an evidentiary hearing was necessary and in November 2023, an evidentiary hearing was held.

When Waller approached the stand to testify, the State announced that Waller should have representation, which the State had at the ready, because if he testified consistently with his affidavit, his plea would be revoked, and he would be charged with murder.  Despite the fear created by that threat, Waller took the stand and testified under oath to the circumstances surrounding his prior false statement and testimony.

At the conclusion of this hearing, the Court found that Waller was credible, and the Court was satisfied that Waller’s 2005 and 2009 statements and trial testimony were false.  The motion for a new trial was granted and, on January 31, 2024, the State dismissed the charges.

In his order, Judge Wilson wrote, “there is no reason except for conscience that Mr. Waller would come forward and recant, especially in the face of the State’s forewarning of plea agreement revocation and prosecution immediately before his testimony at the evidentiary hearing.” He also noted that Davenport testified at the 2009 trial that “he believed he had no other choice but to sign the statement written out by” the Durham Police Department. He further noted, “It is troubling that Mr. Doakes’ 2003 and 2005 statements became the foundation and impetus for reinvigorating the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Johnson’s murder despite his questionable truthfulness. Sgt. Cates testified that he would not believe what Mr. Doakes says on his own; information gathered from Mr. Doakes would need to be corroborated for Sgt. Cates to believe it. When confronted with inconsistencies while comparing Mr. Doakes’ story to Mr. Waller’s and Mr. Davenport’s story, Inv. Baker testified that it was not concerning. Finally, and most glaringly, Mr. Doakes implicated himself as present during Mr. Johnson’s murder in his 2003 and 2005 statements, but none of the other purported participants mentioned him as being involved, much less present.”

Evans’ conviction was the third vacated conviction in Durham that resulted from investigations by some of the same officers within the Durham Police Department.  A petition for a pardon has been filed with the Governor’s office.  Waller’s conviction was also overturned with the consent of the Durham District Attorney in December 2024 and his charge was dismissed.  Davenport is deceased.