photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Owen Walker appears at a hearing on March 27, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence man who was a key witness in the death of a 14-year-old boy was granted probation on Thursday for interfering with the police investigation into the shooting.

The man, Owen Gage Walker, 20, of Lawrence, pleaded no contest in March to one felony count of interference as part of a plea agreement that dismissed an additional felony obstruction charge, as the Journal-World reported.

Walker was convicted of having given false information to police in the wake of the shooting death of 14-year-old Karmajay Shaw on March 18, 2023. Walker was to be a key witness during the trial of the accused shooter, Derrick Del Reed, 19, of Lawrence, but Walker did not testify at trial and evaded police until after Reed was acquitted in March of 2024. Reed’s attorney, Mark Hartman, had argued at trial that Walker was probably the real shooter.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Derrick Del Reed, left, and his defense attorney Mark Hartman during Reed’s murder trial on March 11, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

Walker was with Reed before, during and after the shooting when Reed was alleged to have fired multiple rounds at a group of teenagers outside of his home at 1318 Maple Lane in Lawrence, striking Shaw in the back and killing him. Police originally recommended a conspiracy to murder charge for Walker but prosecutors never filed the charge.

On Thursday Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Walker to six months in prison, which she then suspended to one year of probation, in accordance with Kansas sentencing guidelines, for the low-level felony.