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View Winners → Crime Oct 17, 2022
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A rapper-actor who appeared in the 2018 film “SuperFly” was sentenced Monday to 50 years to life in state prison for sex-related charges involving three teens and four young women in attacks dating back to 2013.
Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino also ordered Kaalan Walker, 27, to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, according to Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Wallace, who told City News Service that she believes the defendant is “truly a predator.”
A Van Nuys jury convicted Walker on April 18 of three counts of forcible rape, two counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and rape of an intoxicated victim and one count of assault with intent to commit oral copulation involving crimes between 2013 and 2018.
Jurors acquitted him of two counts of forcible rape and one count of forcible digital penetration involving three other alleged victims.
In her opening statement in March, Deputy District Attorney Yasmin Fardghassemi told the jury that the case involved women who didn’t know each other, and that the “single thing that unites all of these woman is the defendant Kaalan Walker.”
“You’re going to see a dark side of him …,” the prosecutor told jurors, saying Walker primarily used Instagram and Twitter to lure his alleged victims to locations he chose by booking them for fake photo or music video shoots or with a false promise of introducing them to someone famous.
“When they said `Stop,’ he didn’t care,” Fardghassemi said.
Walker’s attorney, Andrew Flier, countered that his client — whom he said had been “portrayed as a monster” — was innocent of the charges.
“They’re going to lie to you because they know that they fell for his B.S.,” the defense lawyer told jurors, saying the alleged victims were out for “revenge.”
“The pattern of Mr. Walker is to make false promises, and they bought it… Each one of these women voluntarily made their own decisions,” Flier said. “He didn’t force them… It’s pay-back to Mr. Walker and we’re not going to let that happen.”
He said his client has endured “a living nightmare” and had a great career that has since been ruined.
Walker — who also appeared in the 2017 Halle Berry-Daniel Craig film “Kings” — was arrested in September 2018. He was subsequently released on bond, but he was taken into custody again after the jury’s verdict was read.
