RICHMOND, Va. -- Six years after he shot and killed a Virginia state trooper, a judge has ordered that a man be locked up for the rest of his life.
During a hearing in Richmond Circuit Court Friday, Judge Claire Cardwell revoked the suspended sentence handed down to Travis Ball five years ago.
“That message should've been portrayed from the beginning, but today to finally hear that we are going to hold Travis Ball accountable makes me feel safer at night,” said Jaime Walter, the widow of VSP Special Agent Mike Walter. “Especially for my children and their children later on."
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In October 2018, Ball was technically sentenced to life in prison for the capital murder of Walter, who was gunned down while patrolling Mosby Court in May 2017.
But the judge suspended all but 36 years of that punishment.
Since his sentencing, Ball has been convicted of stabbing another inmate inside the Northern Neck Regional Jail, and back in October he was convicted of two counts of malicious wounding by mob for an attack inside a jail in Stafford County.
As a result, last year Richmond’s commonwealth’s attorney filed a new charge against Ball, accusing him of failing to comply with the terms and conditions of the suspended sentence.
During Friday’s revocation hearing, prosecutors also submitted other evidence in support of their case, including a video where Ball is seen boasting about being a member of the Bloods gang, and flaunting a wrist tattoo that shows the date of Walter’s murder.
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