St. Petersburg man pleads guilty in case of woman killed by stray bullet

A St. Petersburg man has been sentenced to prison for a shooting nearly six years ago in which a woman was killed by a stray bullet.

Jamel Walker, 35, agreed to a plea deal in September in which he will serve 13 years on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.

About 10 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2018, a stray bullet struck and killed Aesha Kendrick while she sat on her front porch at 2000 45th St. S. Multiple neighbors in Childs Park told police they had seen the driver of a white truck chasing the driver of a blue truck while bullets flew.

Kenneth Miller, the first St. Petersburg police officer to arrive at the scene, said he thought Kendrick was pregnant when he first saw her swollen stomach. He then realized that it was internal bleeding from the gunshot wound.

A neighbor performed CPR on Kendrick. She later died at Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, now Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital.

Kendrick, 38, was a nursing assistant and mother of five. Several children were inside the home during the shooting, but none of them were hurt, according to police. A Tampa Bay Times reporter was unable to reach family members by phone.

"She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," a public defender representing Walker said in court testimony.

At the time of the shooting, police withheld the name of the intended target. But court documents recently made public shed light on a dispute between Walker and a childhood friend that led to the shooting — with Kendrick caught in the middle.

Prosecutors suspect the shooting occurred in retaliation to a drug deal dispute. But because key witnesses became less cooperative as the case dragged on for nearly six years, they were never able to pin down Walker's motive, said Anthony Bradlow, a Pinellas assistant state attorney and lead prosecutor on the case.

"Getting the guilty plea, resolving the case, getting what's still a substantial amount of time where this guy is off the streets, I think it's the best course we could have taken in this case," he said.

About a week before the shooting, Walker robbed KyKamar Waiters at gunpoint, Waiters testified more than a year later in 2020.

The two men had been friends since they were 17, Waiters said.

It took Waiters by surprise when Walker asked to come over, then held a gun to his head while Waiters washed his hands in the kitchen, he said in a deposition.

Walker then said, "'Give me the money,'" according to Waiters. "I thought he was joking."

Waiters, who told attorneys he owns a landscaping business, said his friend took about $2,000 in cash from him.

Days later on Oct. 29, 2018, Waiters drove to where Walker lived with his former girlfriend and snapped a photo of the license plate of the minivan that Walker was driving during the alleged robbery. He intended to report it to police, but then decided he didn't want to cause more trouble, he told attorneys.

"I thought if I just let it go and let it pass by, he probably wouldn't be thinking about it no more," Waiters said in a deposition. "I wouldn't be thinking about it."

But about a week later, Walker tried to kill him, he said.

Waiters was driving his blue work truck that morning to Rush Hour Chicken & Waffles on 34th Street. Near the intersection of 45th Street South and 20th Avenue South, he slowed behind a Nissan that was stopped in the road.

He heard two shots hit his truck, then five more followed. Waiters said he peeled around and ducked under the steering wheel to avoid the spray of bullets, then caught a glimpse of a white vehicle and who he thought to be Walker.

St. Petersburg police detectives testified that Waiters was adamant that Walker was the gunman when they first spoke after the shooting. In his 2020 deposition, Waiters walked back his identification of Walker, but said he had to "assume that was him," based on the earlier robbery.

In June, when prosecutors were gearing up for trial, Waiters "totally reversed" his position, Bradlow said. He told lawyers he would not identify Walker on the stand and that he didn't know who shot at him.

Waiters' change of heart squashed prosecutors' hopes of getting a guilty verdict from a jury.

"That was really the major issue with the case," Bradlow said.

Miller, the St. Petersburg sergeant who arrived first to the scene, has worked the Childs Park neighborhood most of his career. He said in a deposition that Waiters often cooperates with police. When detectives were investigating a stabbing inside Waiters' apartment earlier that year, Miller warned him he was running with a dangerous crowd.

"He's the nicest one out of the whole group," Miller said. "He was more on the outside. He's just friends with them."

But testimony from Walker's girlfriend at the time, Jaslim Banks, paints Waiters in a different light.

Banks said Waiters supplied crack cocaine to Walker, who dealt it in the neighborhood. In his deposition, Waiters denied that he ever sold drugs to Walker.

"Now, in 2024, Mr. Waiters was not going to testify that he believed that would be some sort of motive to be shot at," Bradlow said. "It's likely that this was over drugs."

Walker told Banks that Waiters was threatening his family, particularly one of his brothers, after the alleged robbery, she said. Other neighbors who testified said they had heard similar rumors.

On the morning of the shooting, Walker came home and told her "something bad happened" and that she should take her kids to her sister's house. He parked the white Ford F-150 he was borrowing from a friend in the backyard, which was unusual, Banks said in the deposition.

Walker drove her to Jordan Creek, where he unwrapped a handgun from a garbage bag and tossed it into the water, Banks testified. Police were unable to recover a gun there.

"If we had a firearm recovered on scene or at his home later that day," Bradlow said, "I think we'd be talking about a different situation right now."

That evening, Walker, Banks and her sister were taking a walk when police showed up to arrest him, Banks said.

Walker has been held without bond for nearly six years, court records show. With credit for time served, he will likely be out of prison in about seven years, Bradlow said.

Walker was released from prison in May 2018 after serving eight years on robbery and grand theft auto charges. In the early 2000s, Walker was part of the Childs Park gang, according to Miller.

"He ran with a group of guys that were just tormenting the neighborhood," Miller said in a deposition. "I know him to be a very violent individual."

Despite it being a difficult case that took many years to conclude, Bradlow said he was content with the plea deal.

"All things considered, it's a good outcome," he said.