COVINGTON, Ky. — A man who skipped out on his sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to manslaughter is back in police custody, according to Rob Sanders, Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney.
Sanders tweeted on Thursday that Shane Walters, a Taylor Mill native, was found thanks to the US Marshal's Fugitive Task Force and the Kenton County Sheriff's Department. Walters was found at the Lookout Motel in Park Hills, Ky.
When investigators found Walters, he had a gun in his possession, Sanders said.
Walters now faces additional charges; he was indicted on Thursday on one count of bail jumping and will face additional charges for having a gun, according to Sanders. A bail jumping charge can carry a sentence of one to five years in prison and the possession of a handgun could add up to five to ten years; Sanders said Walters could face additional federal charges as well, which would run separately than the state's charges against him.
"Certainly it's not going to help him at sentencing and it's not going to help him before the parole board either," said Sanders. "He really screwed up his situation — given the serious loss that he caused, killing his girlfriend, he was getting off rather light under Kentucky law ... he has at least doubled, if not tripled the amount of prison time that he will do."
Walters pleaded guilty in February to one count of second-degree manslaughter; he was arrested and charged two years prior, in February 2021. He was out of jail after posting a $25,000 cash bond, Sanders said.
This guilty plea was part of a plea deal, where prosecutors recommended a sentence of five years in prison for the manslaughter charge.
In 2021, 33-year-old Megan McCray was discovered dead inside Walters' Knollwood Drive home on Feb. 10.
Walters claimed he'd been teaching McCray to disassemble and reassemble a handgun when it fired unexpectedly; he told investigators he'd been pulling the trigger to release the slide and didn't know the gun was loaded.
McCray was shot in the chest and died from her injuries.
Although Walters claimed not to have been under the influence at the time of the shooting, police said a blood sample taken six hours after McCray’s death showed Walters had a blood alcohol content of .12.
It would have been significantly higher when McCray died.
Walters was scheduled to be sentenced on May 1, but he never showed. Assistant Kenton Commonwealth Attorney, Corey Plybon said this is the first court hearing Walters had missed.
"I'm not sure where Mr. Walters is," his attorney told the judge on May 1.
Walters is scheduled to re-appear in court on Friday to face his new charges, Sanders said.
