Youngwood man guilty of sexual assault on 2 teen girls

A Youngwood man faces up to 114 years in prison because he was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting two teenage girls in 2016.

Westmoreland County jurors deliberated about an hour before finding Darell Deisean Walker, 23, guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault and other related offenses.

They found him not guilty of rape and other charges associated with allegations that he twice forced a 16-year-old girl to have sex.

Jurors for the last three days heard evidence in four separate cases in which Walker was accused of having improper sexual activity with the underage girls, including a 13-year-old runaway and another 14-year-old he met via social media.

Assistant District Attorney Judy Petrush said she will seek consecutive sentences for the 12 charges on which Walker was convicted.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani ordered that Walker remain in jail pending his sentencing in about three months.

Walker was first arrested and charged with sex crimes involving the young runaway.

While in jail awaiting trial, prosecutors said he wrote out a detailed confession of having sexual relations with two other teen girls. That confession was given to Walker’s cellmate, who gave the letter to police.

Walker insisted during his testimony Thursday he did not initially know his victims were minors.

Defense attorney Tim Dawson, in closing argument to the jury, questioned the confession’s authenticity and said Walker’s accusers could not be believed.

“You can’t convict him because you don’t like what he did to these women,” Dawson argued. “He acknowledged he made mistakes and was adamant he did not know the ages.”

Petrush argued Walker was aware his victims were teens.

“This grown man, Darell Walker, cared about no one but himself. He only cared about having sexual intercourse,” Petrush said. “He said he had a weakness for sex and nothing else mattered to him.”