At around 7:30 pm, detention officers had made a security walk when inmates notified them that a fight had just occurred inside the locked cell where Douglas Walker, age 34, and Andrew Ward, age 26, had been housed together for the last three weeks.
Detention officers arrived immediately and found the victim (Walker) on the floor, bleeding. He had been beaten, stabbed with a golf pencil and smeared with peanut butter over his head. Later paramedics also determined that Walker’s breathing had been obstructed by a plastic bag placed in his nose and throat.
When Phoenix Fire arrived, they pronounced Walker dead at the scene.
Inmate Ward was removed from the area for questioning and immediately admitted to Sheriff’s detectives that he had choked and beaten Walker.
Ward said he then attempted to cut Walker’s throat with a plastic playing card, then using a golf pencil, he stabbed Walker in the eyes and throat. The attack ended after Ward stuffed a plastic bag down Walker’s throat.
Ward told Sheriff’s detectives that he had no regrets for the attack. Andrew Ward has been charged with first degree murder for the death of Douglas Walker.
Ward has been in custody since March 12, 2014 after allegedly killing his 12 year old brother in their Phoenix home.
Prior to the March arrest, Ward had been in jail on 11 different occasions since 2006 with no major disciplinary problems or notable institutional history, according to authorities.
Douglas Walker was in custody since November 27, 2013 for armed robbery, kidnapping.