2013/11/23

Bar None: A Story of Life and Love Overcoming the Walls of Jail

“God brought us together for a reason,” Marisha Smith said of her longtime boyfriend Joseph Walker. Smith, 32, and Walker, 30, first met while attending junior high in Bowling Green, but it wasn’t until after high school that the pair would begin dating in 2006. “I guess she just got prettier,” Walker said with a laugh.
Three months later Walker found himself in jail on drug charges, “She stuck by me that whole year,” Walker said. Twice a week, Smith would go to the jail for visitations to see Walker, load money onto his account for phone calls and bring him new clothes. “I don’t know why she’s stayed with me this long,” Walker said, “She could probably do a whole lot better, and without the headaches.”
In and out of jail over the next several years, Walker struggled to stay clean and remain a free man. Things were looking better when the couple’s first child, Acelyhne, was born in the summer of 2012.
October 9, 2012- “It is a day I will never forget,” Walker said. He had gone out to play a game of dice with some friends, but the party got out of hand leading to the murder of Demarcus Elliott. According to Walker he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, but failing to notify his probation officer that he had contact with police officials was enough to put him back in jail. While there, Bowling Green police charged him with the murder and because of his record, Walker is now facing life in prison if convicted.
“I’ve watched my daughter grow up in here,” he said, “It sucks.” Smith maintains that Walker is innocent and doesn’t believe that he will get life in prison. Either way though she says, “I will be with him till the end.”


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