In the fall of 2019, the life of 30-year-old Melissa Lanny Pelton was tragically cut short in Troy, Alabama. On the night of October 24th, law enforcement responded to a call at the Poplar Hills Mobile Home Park. Inside her residence, they discovered Pelton, who had been fatally shot. The grim discovery was made even more distressing by the fact that the violent act had occurred in the presence of her young child.
Investigators quickly identified a suspect, Michael Deramus Walker Sr.,
who was 36 at the time and in a relationship with Pelton. He was apprehended shortly after the incident. The investigation, a collaborative effort between the Troy Police Department, the Pike County District Attorney's Office, the Pike County Coroner's Office, the Brundidge Police Department, and the Alabama Department of Forensic Science, led to a capital murder charge against Walker. Under Alabama law, the charge was elevated to capital murder because the crime was committed in the presence of a child under the age of 14, and the victim was the child's parent.
The legal process that followed brought a measure of closure to the case. In January 2024, Michael Deramus Walker Sr., then 40 years old, pleaded guilty to the capital murder of Melissa Lanny Pelton in the Pike County Circuit Court. Court records confirmed that Walker had shot his girlfriend multiple times in the home they shared with their children. As a result of his guilty plea, Walker was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
