photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Nicholas Beaver is pictured on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

The trial for a defendant accused of murdering a man outside the Lawrence Public Library last year got underway Monday with jury selection.

Nicholas Laron Beaver, 34, is accused of fatally shooting Vincent Lee Walker, 39, shortly after 5 p.m. on March 6, 2024, at a bus stop in the 700 block of Vermont Street.

Even though the shooting had occurred in broad daylight on a busy downtown Lawrence street, little was publicly known about the incident until half a year later because Judge Stacey Donovan had sealed the arrest affidavit in the case. At Beaver’s preliminary hearing last October, however, witnesses testified about seeing the shooting after Beaver and Walker got into a dispute at the bus stop. Law enforcement witnesses testified about a trail of evidence — including a gun with DNA on it, clothes, shoes and other items reportedly belonging to Beaver — leading from the downtown shooting site westward to the area of Ninth and Iowa streets, as the Journal-World reported.

Beaver was originally charged with second-degree murder, but that charge was upgraded to first-degree after the state, represented by Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald, persuaded Donovan that probable cause existed for the more serious charge.

Beaver, a Topeka man who resided at the Lawrence Community Shelter around the time of the fatal shooting, is currently in custody at the Douglas County Jail on a $1 million bond.

Opening arguments in the murder case will begin once jury selection has wrapped up. Beaver is represented by defense attorney Razmi Tahirkheli.

Walker, a musician who performed under the name V-Dubb, had also been part of Lawrence’s unhoused community.

photo by: Contributed

Vincent Lee Walker