A 32-year-old Galesburg man was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting deaths of a married couple who lived next door to him in 2021.
William Robert Wolfe, 32, was charged with two counts each of open murder and felony firearms in the June 3, 2021, shooting deaths of Virgil “Larry” Walker, 49, and Kailey Walker, 30.
Wolfe, Bridenstine said, believed the government would beam thoughts into his head via a satellite or cell tower and that people were constantly attempting to break into his home. He apparently had hours of recordings when he thought he caught them attempting to break in, but when he would play them back and hear nothing, he came to the conclusion that the government was using technology to erase the recordings.
The shooting took place at around 6:30 a.m. that day in the Galesburg Village Apartments complex, in the 600 block of 35th Street.
According to police reports read by Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge Paul Bridenstine during Wolfe’s July 14 plea hearing, Wolfe knocked on the Walkers’ door and shot Virgil Walker without any warning or provocation after the door was opened. Walker is said to have fallen backward onto his couch, at which point Wolfe entered the apartment and shot Kailey Walker, who was seated on the couch, multiple times.
Wolfe appeared for the July 14 court hearing by video from the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Saline, and entered his plea to Bridenstine in front of a small gathering of family members and friends, who sat inside the courtroom. Bridenstine read extensively from a number of police reports and a pair of psychiatric evaluations prior to accepting Wolfe’s plea.
Wolfe, who had filed two noise complaints against his neighbors, both unfounded, a month earlier, told police, and later psychologists, that he believed they were working with the deep state and sleeping in shifts elsewhere and were being paid to prevent him from sleeping.
He said they would often bang on the walls and make noise, simply so he could not sleep.
Wolfe, according to documents read by Bridenstine, said this had been happening for 10 years and it didn’t matter where he lived but the Walkers, as well as previous neighbors, had all been out to get to him and would deliberately harass him through making loud noises and banging on walls and slamming doors. He even moved from his previous residence to try to get away from the harassment, he told doctors.
Wolfe said had not slept more than an hour in a night as long as he could remember, and that he was often followed by cars that didn’t have license plates as well. He said the government would also try to psychologically manipulate him through select music that was being played.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jeffry Wendt wrote in his report for the state that Wolfe suffered from pervasive and severe paranoid schizophrenia. Wolfe, in his interviews with Wendt, according to the report, told the doctor he had purchased the weapon used to kill the Walkers in 2014 from a store in Oshtemo Township. He bought it after his father died, he told the psychiatrist, because he was afraid a hitman had been hired to kill him.
Wolfe told deputies he never fired the weapon prior to the morning in which he shot and killed the Walkers. Deputies confirmed the purchase, and that Wolfe never registered the gun.
Wendt, in his report, opined that Wolfe’s mental illness at the time of the shooting prevented the man from understanding what was right or wrong.
In a police report filed by Kalamazoo County Detective Sgt. Mike DeNoon, Wolfe apparently told the detective he had not eaten for three days and had been drinking vodka heavily for a month, as well as smoking marijuana. He admitted to shooting the couple, but said he didn’t know how many times he fired his 9mm handgun or where the bullets had hit. The report stated that Wolfe had taken his last drink of vodka about 12 hours before the shooting.
Wolfe told police he did not think of consequences when he killed the couple, but just “wanted it to stop.”
He said he knew he had done something wrong afterward, and returned to his apartment to say goodbye to his cat, “because he knew he wouldn’t be coming back.” He then drove to a nearby nursing home, the Laurels of Galesburg at 1080 N. 35th St., and called 911.
Wolfe told emergency dispatchers that he had shot and possibly killed his neighbors. He then told dispatchers he had his firearm on him and wanted to give himself up peacefully to the deputy, which he did, Bridenstine read from the report. Wolfe told a responding deputy that he never intended to hurt anyone, but he just wanted to be left alone and for the noises to stop.
When deputies arrived on the shooting scene, both Virgil and Kailey Walker were deceased and on the couch.
Kailey Walker’s mother told police that Wolfe moved in on the same day her daughter and son-in-law died, on March 22, less than three months prior to the shooting. She recalled seeing Wolfe on move-in day.
Wolfe, Bridenstine said, believed the government would beam thoughts into his head via a satellite or cell tower and that people were constantly attempting to break into his home. He apparently had hours of recordings when he thought he caught them attempting to break in, but when he would play them back and hear nothing, he came to the conclusion that the government was using technology to erase the recordings.
He had tried, at one point to sleep in a tent in a park to get away from his neighbors, but the nearby satellite kept him awake, he told one of the psychiatrists.
Bridenstine, after reviewing all of the materials, accepted the plea, thus committing Wolfe to the state’s center for forensic psychiatry for an additional period not to exceed 60 days.
Within that 60-day period, the center will file a recommendation to the court in regard to whether Wolfe requires further treatment.
Bridenstine explained that he may also direct the prosecuting attorney, at a Sept. 8 status conference, to file a petition for an order of hospitalization through the probate court. That order could be for an indefinite period of time with a possible commitment of life or any number of years.