A Douglas County jury on Thursday found a Topeka man guilty of first-degree murder in connection with the 2024 shooting of a Lawrence musician.
Nicholas Laron Beaver, 34, was accused of killing Vincent Lee Walker on March 6, 2024 at the bus stop in the 700 block of Vermont Street, near the Lawrence Public Library.
Walker, 39, was a musician who performed under the name V-Dubb. He was a father of three and a brother to seven siblings, according to his obituary.
He was familiar to many in the community, including many library staff members, Lawrence’s police chief said after the shooting.
According to testimony during Beaver’s preliminary hearing in October, Walker had been arguing loudly with a man who had thrown Walker’s food on the sidewalk. As friends of the men broke up that scuffle, a man on a bicycle who had been traveling south on Vermont exchanged words with Walker.
One witness testified that he was waiting for a bus and witnessed Walker telling the man on the bike never to talk to him again. The man on the bicycle initially began to ride away, but instead confronted Walker again.
“The guy turned back around,” the witness said. “I took my eye off of him, and I heard bam, bam, bam. Vincent fell.”
After looking at videos from cameras in the block where the shooting occurred and comparing it to images of Beaver from a separate incident, detectives used clothing and other evidence collected to identify Beaver as a suspect. Beaver’s DNA was found on the gun used in the shooting, according to testimony from October.
Beaver is originally from Topeka but had been staying for a brief time in Lawrence prior to his arrest. His trial began Monday, and jurors returned the verdict Thursday afternoon.
“This just verdict is the result of the hard work, legal skill, and compassion of our prosecution team and the swift action of the law enforcement officers who responded and investigated Mr. Walker’s murder,” Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis said in a news release. “I would like to thank the jury for their service and for returning the appropriate verdict based upon the evidence presented – guilty as charged.”
A status conference for Beaver is set for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 29.
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