Jury deliberations to begin in case of man accused of attacking NFL’s Javon Walker

By Cara McCoy

Thursday, April 22, 2010 | 9:16 p.m.

Jury deliberations will begin Friday in the trial of a man accused of beating and robbing former Oakland Raiders wide receiver Javon Walker.

In June 2008, Walker was found in a parking lot about a block from the Las Vegas Strip, injured and missing thousands of dollars worth of cash and diamond jewelry.

Deshawn Thomas, who has a record that includes multiple felony convictions, has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree kidnapping, battery with substantial bodily harm and conspiracy. Thomas, 42, is facing a possible life sentence if the jury finds him guilty.

A codefendant, Arfat Fadel, pleaded guilty just before the trial started. He testified earlier this week against Thomas, offering an explanation of events leading up to Walker being found unconscious in a the parking lot of a vacant condominium complex near Winnick Avenue and Koval Lane.

Walker was on the stand last week and testified that he was extremely intoxicated in the hours leading up to the attack. He said he had been partying at the Hard Rock Hotel, where he sprayed champagne at the crowd at the Body English nightclub and was seen falling-down drunk at a private party in a hotel suite.

Thomas and Fadel are said to have followed Walker’s party back to the Bellagio, where Walker was staying. Walker testified that he willingly got into Fadel’s black Range Rover and believed the trio was going to Drai’s, an afterhours nightclub at nearby Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall.

Fadel said he was a full-time gambler and simply wanted to befriend Walker to gamble with his money in hopes of pocketing a cut of the profits. He said he reluctantly agreed to drive across the street to Drai’s after Thomas and Walker indicated they wanted to go there and was disappointed that his plans to gamble with Walker at the Bellagio were thwarted.

Fadel testified that it was Thomas who directed him to the vacant lot, where Walker was eventually found at about 7 a.m. June 16, 2008. Fadel told jurors he didn’t know what was going to happen when Thomas directed him away from their intended destination, but he had an uneasy feeling about it.

Both Fadel and Walker testified that after pulling into the parking lot, Thomas reached around from the backseat of the Range Rover and demanded Walker’s property, which included a diamond and platinum necklace, a designer watch, a pair of 2-carat diamond stud earrings as well as casino chips, cash and credit cards.

Fadel said that after Thomas took the items, he ordered Walker out of the car. Although Fadel said he couldn’t see what happened next, he said Thomas got back in the car and told Fadel to drive. He said Thomas told him he had hit Walker with a “two-piece,” meaning he had punched him twice.

Prosecutors say Thomas had his eye on Walker at the Hard Rock and that Walker, stumbling, drunk and wearing diamond-encrusted jewelry, made for an easy target.

“It is not a crime to be drunk in Las Vegas,” Prosecutor Nell Keenan said in her closing arguments. She said Thomas’ attorneys had “vilified” Walker in an effort to take the blame off their client and place it on the professional football player.

A significant portion of evidence in the case hinged on surveillance video from several casinos as well as cell phone records. Prosecutors and Thomas’ attorneys disagree as to the timing of a specific phone call reportedly made moments before Thomas allegedly grabbed Walker.

After the incident, Walker spent four days at a Las Vegas hospital, where he underwent surgery on his mouth. It took him more than two months to fully recover.

In her closing statements, attorney Betsy Allen argued a timeline of events that placed Thomas and Fadel at a bar in the northwest valley at the time of the alleged attack on Walker. She said Walker needed a story to explain how he had come to be found in the parking lot after a night of irresponsible drinking.

“He lost his jewelry. He couldn’t remember what happened, so he fabricated a story,” she said.

She pointed to how drunken Walker was and suggested he could have injured his face as a result of falling down while he was intoxicated.

She asked jurors to evaluate the evidence as a whole and said that several of the witnesses, including Fadel and friends who had been with Walker that night, had a motive to lie.

“Arfat Fadel is a conman. He’s a hustler. And he was very convincing (on the stand),” she said.

Walker’s jewelry has never been recovered and Allen contended that was because neither Fadel nor Thomas had possession of it in the first place.

Prosecutor Joshua Tomsheck rebutted Allen’s assertions, saying that Fadel had no reason to lie because there is little doubt that he will be sentenced to prison time.

Under the plea agreement, Fadel will be sentenced from two to 15 years behind bars.

He said Walker was only guilty of drinking too much and making bad decisions that led him to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“This defendant made Javon Walker a victim,” he said, pointing at Thomas.

He asked jurors not to reward Thomas for having the forethought to beat and rob Walker outside the watchful eye of casino security cameras, saying the cell phone records clearly link Fadel and Thomas to the time of the attack. He pointed to Fadel’s corroborating testimony of Walker’s hazy recollection of events.

Walker was able to identify Fadel as the driver of the Range Rover and said it was the other occupant who attacked him.

After the jury was excused for the evening, Allen moved for a mistrial over a photograph prosecutors displayed for the jury during closing arguments. But District Court Judge Doug Smith, who is presiding over the case, denied her request.

The trial began last Tuesday. Thomas, who is being held in the Clark County Detention Center, is also in custody on another case on charges that include pandering, child abuse, living from the earnings of a prostitute and statutory sexual seduction, court records show. That case is set for trial in May.