CHIPLEY — Christopher Cruz Walley will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the 2014 kidnapping of Marly Ann Conway.
Walley, who was found guilty last month in a verdict that took a jury less than an hour to reach, was sentenced Monday by County Judge Colby Peel, who approved Assistant State Attorney Shalla Jefcoat’s request to have Walley classified as a prison releasee re-offender. That classification can be assigned to anyone having committed a crime within three years of being released from the Department of Corrections (DOC).
Conway’s kidnapping occurred less than a year after Walley was released from DOC, where he served a year-and-a-half sentence for several other felonies, including robbery.
Walley was convicted of aggravated battery and kidnapping after a series of events that left Conway beaten unconscious in the trunk of an Oldsmobile, which Walley drove throughout the night of the crime and into the next day. Conway was later able to escape to an Eloise Road residence in Chipley, where she called 911.
Conway’s grandmother, Inell Reeves, spoke to the court during sentencing, telling Peel she was asking neither leniency nor severity for Walley.
“Do I want him to rot in jail? That’s up to you,” Reeves told Peel. “I’m not asking leniency for him; I’m not asking you to be tough on him.
“He had no right to do this to her; he had no right to do this to our family,” she added. “From what I’ve seen, from all accounts, he’s shown no remorse. … That makes it hard to forgive, but God commands I forgive him, and I’m going to do that. I’m going to take all those feelings — anger, disbelief, sadness, bitterness and fear … and pack them all up and send them off with him. From this day forward, when I walk out that door, I will be free of him, and he will never be in my head again or do anything to our family again.”
Walley spoke to the court on his behalf, denying, as he did during his trial testimony, ever placing Conway in the trunk of the car.
“I’m not the animal I was made out to be,” Walley said. “I did have a physical altercation with this woman, but I never once put her inside of a trunk. I pray that through the trial you saw the lies that were told. … I’m begging for your mercy.”
Due to Walley’s designation as a re-offender, Peel had no discretion on the sentence and had to abide by state statutes, which determines sentencing guidelines for reoffenders.
Walley will serve a life sentence for Conway’s kidnapping and an additional 15-year aggravated battery sentence, which will run concurrently with the life sentence.