photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Nicholas Beaver testifies at his murder trial on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

A convicted murderer refused to appear for a court hearing Thursday, resulting in a probable delay in his sentencing and disappointment for relatives of the victim, who would have turned 40 Friday had he not been gunned down last year in front of the Lawrence Public Library.

Nicholas Beaver was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder in the March 6, 2024, shooting of Vincent Lee Walker. On Thursday, the court was scheduled to hear motions in the case, including the defendant’s request for the verdict to be thrown out and a judgment of acquittal or a new trial to be ordered. However, that hearing did not occur.

photo by: Contributed

Vincent Lee Walker

Little information is publicly available about why the hearing did not happen because Judge Stacey Donovan opted to handle the matter by private email rather than in open court. The Journal-World learned from individuals close to the case that Beaver had simply refused to leave his jail cell to attend the hearing. Relatives of Walker, who were sitting in the courtroom waiting for the 10:30 a.m. hearing to begin, were told by a prosecutor that the delay in the motions hearing, now scheduled for Oct. 10, would surely mean a delay in the sentencing, which had itself been scheduled for Oct. 10.

As the Journal-World reported, a jury in July took about two hours to reject Beaver’s claim of self-defense and his defense attorney’s suggestion that he had been “framed” because of his race. Beaver is Black, as was his victim. The state relied heavily on video evidence that captured the shooting and Beaver’s movements after he left the bus stop in front of the library and rode his bike across town, depositing evidence, including the murder weapon and clothing, along the way.