Former soldier and accomplice sentenced in wife’s Aliamanu murder

A federal judge sentenced today a 40-year-old ex-soldier to 35 years in prison for orchestrating his wife’s murder and also sentenced the man’s accomplice, a 30-year-old woman with a mental disorder, to 30 years behind bars.

A week before trial, Michael Walker, a former Tripler Army Medical Center medic, admitted he arranged to have Ailsa Jackson kill his 38-year-old wife, Catherine, in their Aliamanu Military Reservation home.

Jackson had pleaded to first-degree murder in 2015, cooperated with prosecutors and was key to unlocking a code language Walker devised, in text messages between the two that led to the truth — that Walker was behind the murder.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Brady said Michael Walker asked Jackson two weeks after they met to kill his wife. He kept his plans hidden, so he could get his wife’s life insurance money, and continue trolling for sex partners.

The judge said Jackson stabbed Catherine Walker multiple times and viciously.

Michael Walker could have gotten a maximum of life in prison for first-degree murder, but entered into a deal with the government and admitted to second-degree murder for aiding and abetting the November 2014 death.

His lawyer asked for a sentence of between 24 to 30 years, while the assistant U.S. attorney recommended 30 to 33 years.

Mollway’s sentence went above the government’s recommendation.

Walker and Jackson met at the housing recreation center and had a sexual relationship.

Military judges found Walker guilty in 2016 of child pornography and soliciting money for sex with men, and in 2017 of sexually abusing, assaulting and threatening a young boy.

The sentences for those crimes will run together with the 35-year sentence.