FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2017

PRESS RELEASE

Court of Special Appeals Affirms Child Support Non-Payment Conviction

FREDERICK – The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the Child Support Non-Payment convictions of Danyelle O. Walker in a reported opinion filed September 27, 2017.

The charges in this case followed a three year period of significant non-payment of child support. At the time of the trial, Danyelle O. Walker, 40, of District Heights Maryland owed child support arrearages exceeding $68,000. Mr. Walker, in a jury trial on December 7, 2016, was convicted of 2 counts of Criminal Contempt and 4 counts of Criminal Non-Support of a minor child following a jury trial on December 7, 2016. On the same date the Court sentenced the Defendant to a total of three years in the Division of Correction with all but 1 year suspended.

A Notice of Appeal was filed on December 13, 2016. The Defendant raised two issues on appeal, both of which were rejected by the Court. The Court of Special Appeals found first that there was sufficient evidence of willful nonpayment of child support to sustain the convictions, and second, that the trial court did not err by ordering separate sentences.

Mr. Walker has since been released and will spend 5 years on unsupervised probation monitored by the State’s Attorney’s Office.

The State was represented by Assistant State’s Attorney William Prunka and Assistant State’s Attorney Richard Gibbs.

J. Charles Smith, III
State’s Attorney for Frederick County, Maryland