Texas man asks to withdraw guilty plea in Trumbull court

WARREN

TaShawn Walker, who pleaded guilty in July to involuntary manslaughter and other crimes in the 2013 shooting death of Richard Rollison IV, has asked that the judge in his case allow him to withdraw his guilty plea.

Walker, 28, who is serving a 17-year sentence in Marion Correctional Institution, filed the request himself, asking Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to allow him to withdraw the plea on several grounds.

One was that the judge didn’t read Walker all of his rights. Another was that his attorney, Lynn Maro, was ineffective by “pressuring him to to enter a plea agreement to involuntary manslaughter based upon insufficent evidence to prove his guilt and incorrect advice that self defense is not [an] available defense to present to a jury.”

Walker had come to Warren from his home in Baytown, Texas, for the funeral of his brother, Taemarr Walker, 24, of Warren, after his brother had been shot and killed by a Warren police officer in a confrontation on Risher Road Southwest Oct. 19, 2013.

Read more about what happened in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.