‘This is not a crime,’ lawyer says at trial of ex-JPS official accused of killing 2 women
The attorney for a former John Peter Smith Hospital official accused of killing two women in 2017 told a jury Tuesday that the case involved a father protecting his daughter from sex traffickers and someone who was just defending himself.
“This is a tragedy, no doubt about it,” attorney Andrew Deegan of Fort Worth told a Parker County jury during opening statements in the trial. “Chris is a victim, too. This is not a crime.”
Christopher Wall is accused of capital murder and murder in the shooting deaths of two young women in November 2017.
According to a warrant, Wall fatally shot Ashley Pohorence and Krista McClellan in a Willow Park bank parking lot as they tried to extort money from him.
Just the day before, McClellan and Sierra McMahan had extorted almost $8,000 from Wall, who was the director of behavioral health administration and quality at the Fort Worth hospital, after they convinced him that they had recorded him soliciting them for sex during a massage at his Fort Worth office, according to court documents.
McMahan was at the shooting scene, but she was not wounded.
Wall pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning in the 43rd District Court in Weatherford.
In her opening statement in the trial, prosecutor Kathleen Catania painted a different picture of Wall, saying he took less than five minutes to gun down the women in the parking lot.
“He left the bank to wash his car, and then hid his gun,” Catania said. “He had been staying with his parents in Weatherford, so he goes home and discusses Oklahoma football with his father, eats a banana and goes to bed.”
After the fatal shooting, Wall was arrested without incident at his parents’ home in Weatherford.
Catania said Wall told a Texas Ranger that he didn’t do anything, telling the investigator, “I’m not a killer.”
But he later told the Texas Ranger, “I should have told my wife,” Catania told the jury.
His wife and family members sat in the courtroom Tuesday, showing support for the 38-year-old man.
Wall is charged with capital murder of two people in the same criminal transaction. Prosecutors have waived the death penalty in the case.
If convicted of capital murder, Wall faces a sentence of life in prison without parole. Wall also is charged with two counts of murder, one for each of the women he is accused of killing.
If convicted of either one of those charges instead of capital murder, Wall faces a maximum of life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
The prosecutor told jurors that they would hear about prostitution and extortion in the case.
“Surveillance videos will show Wall being with them at his office and in the parking lot,” Catania said.
Wall’s attorney noted that the two victims and the third woman, McMahan, posed as prostitutes to rob men, taking thousands of dollars before they met Wall.
Wall had contacted the women for a massage on the website Backpage.com. McMahan and McClellan went to his JPS office.
“After he paid them off the first time, they kept coming and coming for more money,” Deegan told the jury. “One time they told him that they were going to kidnap his daughter for sex trafficking.”
Deegan called the alleged plan to kill the women in a bank parking lot one of the “dumbest” accusations.
“Chris’ life was in danger,” Deegan said. “After the shooting, Sierra doesn’t call 911 first. She called their pimp and asked what to do.”
After the opening statements, Andy Martinez testified on Tuesday that he and his wife arrived at the Willow Park bank to get money from the ATM.
“I saw a girl laying on a driveway, and another one near a Mercedes, both blood pouring out,” Martinez said. “There’s another girl there, and she says, ‘He hurt my friends’.”
The trial will continue this week.
This story was originally published July 12, 2022 at 1:03 PM.
