By: Lynn LaRowe - Texarkana Gazette
A Texarkana teen accused of killing a man with a sawed-off shotgun in September pleaded not guilty to murder Thursday in a Miller County courtroom.
Jeffrey Walraven, 19, appeared before Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson for arraignment in the shooting death of Gregg Walker with his defense attorney Shannon Tuckett.
“When he saw the decedent’s gun, the protective instincts of a son for a mother were invoked,” Tuckett said after the hearing. “The situation in which he finds himself is anyone’s nightmare. He was faced with truly believing his mother’s life was in danger. Now he is faced with the horror of killing someone, even if it was in defense of his mother’s life.”
