Teen involved in pellet gun incident denied bond by judge, will remain behind bars

Seventeen-year-old Jamarius Jermaine Walls went before a Superior Court judge earlier this month, and the hearing didn't turn out the way that he and his lawyer wanted it to.

Bond was denied for Walls, and he will remain behind bars for the foreseeable future. Walls is accused of accidentally shooting a 10-year-old boy in the head with an air rifle late last month on Irby Street, located off of Allen Memorial Drive. Detectives haven’t made it immediately clear how the entire incident unfolded, aside from the fact that Walls pulled the trigger on the pellet gun, and the 10-year-old and was struck. 

The boy passed away three days after the accident at an Atlanta-area hospital.

"It was just a group of buddies playing in the yard and a tragic accident, all the way around," Detective Bob Butch told Baldwin2k News several days after the incident. "Essentially, we began with a reckless conduct charge that was later upgraded to involuntary manslaughter (after the boy passed away)."

During the bond hearing process, the deceased boy's mother reportedly vouched for Walls and didn't wish for him to be in jail any longer. It wasn't enough, though.

As it turns out, however, Walls already was "out on bond" when the pellet gun incident occurred last month. Walls was arrested on March 27, 2021, roughly a week after his 17th birthday, after a Baldwin County Sheriff's Deputy was injured and hospitalized. Walls was charged with aggravated assault and a number of traffic charges, and he spent roughly a month in the county jail last spring before bonding out.

Pictured above is Walls' booking photo after being arrested last March.

During a high-speed chase, Walls “completely turned his vehicle into (the deputy’s) patrol car at a high rate of speed,” according to an incident report. The "estimated speed of impact was 50-60 miles per hour." The chase began along Hardwick Street, wound through Central State Hospital and Thomas Field Road, traversed through Harrisburg, east on the bypass before finally coming to an end. A passenger in Walls’ vehicle also was arrested at the scene and charged with one count of misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Walls, meanwhile, was charged with aggravated assault, fleeing/attempting to elude, reckless driving, headlights violation, improper passing, driving without a valid license and brake lights violation.