Man accused of 1995 Fort Worth shooting released after conviction integrity review
A man sentenced to life in connection to a shooting in 1995 has been released from prison after a conviction integrity review by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office. The review did not find him innocent, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office, but that he was oversentenced.
The office said in a news release that 45-year-old Walter Roy, who received a life sentence on a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity and three 20-year sentences on additional charges of attempted murder and engaging in organized criminal activity, has been re-sentenced to time served.
Roy wrote a letter from prison to the district attorney’s office in 2016 that initiated the review.
The conviction integrity review found that Roy was not innocent of involvement in the 1995 shooting in Echo Park in Fort Worth, according to the DA’s office. Police found the gun used in the shooting in a drainage ditch and arrested Roy. Testimony that Roy was the shooter contributed to his 1998 conviction, according to the DA’s office, but the conviction integrity review revealed that testimony to be false.
The review found that Roy was involved in the criminal activity at Echo Park in 1995, but was not the person who fired the gun.
In April, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed Roy was oversentenced for the crimes based on false testimony and granted him a re-sentencing hearing after Gov. Greg Abbott in 2020 denied a request by the DA’s office, Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office and Judge Wayne Salvant to commute Roy’s life sentence to time served.
Roy has been out on bond since August 2021.
Salvant on Tuesday re-sentenced Roy to time served and released him from any bond.