Defense: William Riley Gaul wanted to be his girlfriend's hero, not her killer

In a stunning move, a defense attorney on Tuesday admitted former Maryville College football player William Riley Gaul fired the shot that killed his girlfriend — but insisted it was part of a bizarre plot to win her back, not to kill her.

“We will ask you to find Mr. Gaul guilty of reckless homicide,” defense attorney Wesley Stone told jurors in opening statements Tuesday in Knox County Criminal Court.

Rocky relationship

Gaul, 19, faces charges including first-degree murder and especially aggravated stalking in the November 2016 shooting death of 16-year-old Emma Jane Walker, an honor student and cheerleader at Central High School.

Testimony on Tuesday showed Gaul and Walker began dating in 2014, when he was a junior at Central and a football player and she was a freshman. The relationship was rocky and eventually Walker’s parents tried to put a stop to it.

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“We tried to discourage her from seeing him,” Walker’s mother, Jill Walker, testified Tuesday. “We set limits on when they could see each other.”

When the couple kept sneaking around behind Emma Walker’s parents’ backs, they eventually grounded her in late October 2016. Prosecutor Kevin Allen told jurors in his opening statement Tuesday that Emma Walker then began trying to end things with Gaul.

“She was attempting to break things off with him,” Allen said. “He’s saying things like, ‘I’m going to kill myself’ in an effort to control, to manipulate, to possess her.”

On Nov. 18, 2016, Gaul’s grandfather discovered a gun he kept under the seat of his vehicle was missing when Gaul, who drove the vehicle while his grandfather was buying tires for Gaul’s car, returned it, Allen told jurors.

“He panics because Riley is in an emotional state,” Allen told jurors. “He goes into panic mode.”

But Gaul insisted he had no idea what happened to the gun.

Faked kidnapping

On that same night, Walker’s parents allowed their daughter to go to a friend’s house after a Friday night football game. Gaul was not on the guest list. While at her friend’s home, Walker began receiving texts from an unknown number — Stone conceded it was Gaul — claiming she needed to come outside because a relative had been kidnapped.

“It was a bizarre (attempt to) get her to come outside,” Allen said.

When Walker went outside, she saw Gaul in a ditch with what appeared to be a head wound. He claimed he’d been kidnapped.

“He’s holding his head, saying, ‘I’ve been kidnapped,’” Allen said.

Police were summoned, and, Allen said, Gaul eventually admitted he was lying.

“What Riley was trying to do is get a chance to see Emma,” Stone told jurors. “She wouldn’t talk to him.”

The next day, a man dressed entirely in black — including shoes wrapped in duct tape and gloves — began knocking on the door of the Walker home in the Sterchi Hills neighborhood of West Knox County.

More: Maryville College football player indicted in Central cheerleader's slaying

Allen contends that man was Gaul, and Walker knew it. But Stone countered that Walker had no idea who the “man in black” was and reached out to Gaul. Stone denied Gaul was the mysterious “man in black.”

“What she said was, ‘I hate you, but I need you,’” Stone said.

Gaul then arrived at the Walker home, playing what Allen called the role of “rescuer.” Jill Walker arrived home a short time later and told him to leave.

The following day, Emma Walker still seemed shaken by the incident and asked her parents to make sure the alarm was working.

Killer or wannabe rescuer?

That night, Allen said Gaul “starts to wear her out” with texts and calls, begging, “Please, just talk to me. Don’t do this. I’m begging.”

Around 12:30 a.m., Gaul headed to the Walker home from Maryville College but not before phoning a friend to ask how to “remove fingerprints” from a gun, Allen said.

Both sides agree Gaul fired two shots into the wall of Walker’s bedroom — precisely where her bed was located and precisely where Walker was sleeping. One of those two bullets struck and killed her — though her parents would not know that for several more hours.

Stone had been expected to argue Gaul fired the shots in a moment of passion, not premeditation. Instead, though, he told jurors Gaul merely sought to scare Walker and then again show up as her rescuer.

“Some of us may know a bullet fired through a wall will travel through it,” Stone said. “Some of us may not.”

Allen told jurors Gaul knew full well the bullet would travel through the wall. That’s why he fired it at a precise location to ensure it would hit Walker as she slept on the bed, Allen said.

Allen also told jurors Gaul tried to cover his tracks, continuing to lie about having his grandfather’s gun and eventually trying to toss it — and evidence he was indeed the “man in black" — in the Tennessee River just before authorities captured him two days after the shooting.

The trial continues Wednesday.