The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St.

For the third time, a jury this week weighed evidence against a man accused of wielding a sawed-off shotgun to rob three Lawrencians on their early-morning walks and shooting and killing one victim’s dog.

Two previous jury trials for Pierre P. Walker, 20, ended in hung juries, but this week’s trial ended with a conviction.

Jurors found Walker guilty on all four charges: three counts of aggravated robbery and one count of animal cruelty, all felonies. Following attorneys’ closing arguments the jury began deliberating late Thursday morning and, after about two and a half hours, delivered its verdict about 1:30 p.m.

Judge Sally Pokorny is scheduled to sentence Walker on March 15.

Walker was charged July 11, 2016, with three counts of aggravated robbery and one count of cruelty to animals, all felonies.

Pierre Walker

The three victims previously testified that they were out walking or jogging in southwest Lawrence around 5 a.m. the morning of June 6, 2016, when they were robbed at gunpoint by three men. In one case, one robber shot and killed a dog named Phoebe as her owner was taking her for her usual morning walk.

Lawrence police said the robberies took place southeast of Hy-Vee at 3504 Clinton Parkway, near the Holcom Sports Complex at 2700 W. 27th St. and in the 1500 block of West 27th Street — where the dog was shot to death.

Three suspects in a small SUV allegedly committed the crime spree, though — between the darkness of the early hour and the sudden nature of the attacks — none of the victims were able to provide a complete description of any of the robbers.

Walker is the only person charged in the case.

He has remained in jail throughout his three trials.

Prosecutor Eve Kemple said “a mountain of circumstantial evidence” and a key piece of direct evidence — a victim identifying his face — all point to Walker as one of the robbers.

“What are the odds … of all of these pieces being together in one case?” she said. “The odds are astronomical.”

Walker was linked to the SUV used in the crimes by acquaintances of his who testified that he was among people who took it from them at gunpoint in Kansas City, Kan., in the weeks before the Lawrence crime spree, Kemple said.

Kemple said that after the robberies, police found a number of key items in Walker’s house in Kansas City: one of the victims’ stolen driver’s license and bus pass, a sawed-off shotgun matching the one used to kill Phoebe, shotgun shells matching those that killed the dog, registration paperwork (in the actual owner’s name) from the suspect SUV and a dark ballcap with a red bill matching the suspect clothing description. Facebook messages also provided evidence that Walker had the shotgun at the time of the crimes, Kemple said.

Importantly, one of the robbery victims, the Rev. Verdell Taylor Jr., positively identified Walker — from a photo and in the courtroom — as the man who pointed the gun in his face, Kemple said.

Kemple said Taylor told the court that as he stared down the barrel of the gun being held by the suspect, “I was fixated on his eyes.”

When Taylor later saw Walker’s photo in the Journal-World with a story about his arrest, he described the photo as the eyes he would never forget, Kemple said.

Walker’s appointed defense attorney, Michael Clarke, emphasized his client’s presumption of innocence and said the state’s evidence wasn’t enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Walker was one of the robbers.

“You’re asked to jump to the conclusion,” Clarke said.

Clarke said there were numerous shortcomings in the state’s case.

No fingerprint or other DNA evidence linked Walker to the SUV or the gun, though fingerprints of multiple other men were found on the car, Clarke said.

Also, Clarke said, evidence did not prove Walker lived at the house where stolen items and the gun were found. No witnesses at trial placed Walker at the house after the robberies, and a paystub in Walker’s name found there lists his address as Edwardsville and is dated after the house was leased, Clarke said.

Key among the state’s shortcomings, Clarke said, were vague and generic suspect descriptions — young black male, slender, approximately 6 feet tall, wearing a dark colored hoodie and ballcap with red bill — and a problematic identification by Taylor.

Specifically, Clarke said Taylor testified that he saw the photo attached to a Journal-World story about an arrest in the robberies, as opposed to a police lineup.

“Of course that affects whether or not you think you recognize that person or not,” Clarke said. “This wasn’t cold.”