Judge grants access of police records, recordings involving Devonna Walker

CEDAR RAPIDS — A judge has ordered prosecutors to provide a Cedar Rapids man with electronic records and reports of Devonna Walker — who he is accused of fatally stabbing — using a racial epithet during any incidents she had with law enforcement.

A lawyer for Shane Teslik, 38, in the motion argued the prosecution alleges Teslik should have known using the epithet would provoke a violent reaction from Walker, 29, of Cedar Rapids. So records and recordings of Walker using the racial slur herself are relevant to his justification defense, the motion said.

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According to a criminal complaint, Teslik is charged with voluntary manslaughter, a felony, and disorderly conduct-epithets/threatening gesture, a simple misdemeanor, in the Jan. 2 stabbing outside his residence at 2135 North Towne Court NE in Cedar Rapids.

Teslik, who is white, had called Walker, who is Black, an “abusive racial” epithet or slur before she “charged” at him, pushing Teslik’s wife to the ground. Walker than struck Teslik twice on the left side of his face before he stabbed her, according to the complaint.

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The records and recordings sought by the defense will show Walker’s own use of the racial epithet during her interactions with law enforcement, Victoria Cole, one of Teslik’s lawyers, argued in the motion. The requested materials include police body camera and squad car dashboard camera recordings and jail records.

Cole, in the motion, also said Walker had a “proclivity for violence — demonstrated by her convictions for armed and violent conduct,” which also is relevant to Teslik’s self-defense claim. Walker had convictions of interference with official acts and assault on law enforcement.

Of Walker’s convictions involving charges of assault against peace officers or others, five were from 2010 through 2014, and three were from 2018, 2020 and 2021, which Cole included in her motion.

The motion also requested any recordings or records created resulting from calls of service regarding Walker.

Cole noted that Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks and First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter didn’t resist the motion and had previously given her three recordings. Slaughter said Wednesday prosecutors had provided all the materials before the motion was made.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Jason Besler last week ordered the prosecution to provide the requested reports and recordings to Teslik.

Teslik’s trial was recently continued to Nov. 14. More time is needed to review the case and take depositions, according to a case management conference last week. The trial is estimated to last seven days.

Maybanks, in the criminal complaint, said Teslik was provoked by Walker’s assault on him and his wife and he acted out of “sudden, violent and irresistible passion.” Teslik “didn’t regain control or suppress the impulse to kill” and used a knife he retrieved from his home and stabbed Walker once in the left side of her chest, he said.

Walker, a mother of three, died from the stab injury. An autopsy showed one fatal stab wound, and alcohol and drugs in her system.

The homicide was captured on a cellphone video taken by a neighbor, which was shared on social media after the incident. A coalition of activists groups protested after the fatal attack, demanding an arrest.

According to the complaint, the use of deadly force by Teslik was not justified because it wasn’t reasonable under these circumstances — Teslik “provoked the use of force against him and/or was committing a public offense at the time of the killing.”

Maybanks said Teslik “knew or reasonably should have known” the racial epithet would provoke a violent response from Walker because Walker had previously assaulted Teslik’s wife and him during a Dec. 19, 2022, argument.

The complaint stated Teslik told Walker he would kill her if she came near his home or family after she had assaulted him and his wife in December. Teslik also had called Walker the same racial slur in the December argument.

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