McCurley Awaits Trial in Tarrant County For 1974 Murder of Carla Walker
(Fort Worth, TX) – The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office today filed paperwork seeking a sentence of life in prison, not the death penalty, for Glen Samuel McCurley, 78. McCurley was arrested on a charge of capital murder September 21, 2020, for the 1974 murder of Carla Walker.
“The decision to seek or not to seek the death penalty is one of the most important decisions this office makes,” Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson said.
“After much analysis, and with the support of the family of Carla Walker, we have determined that justice would best be served in this case by waiving the death penalty and seeking a sentence which ensures this Defendant will spend the rest of his days in prison.”
Kim D’Avignon, an assistant criminal district attorney and chief of the Adult Sexual Assault team, is prosecuting this case.
Carla Walker, 17, was abducted, sexually assaulted and strangled after a Western Hills High
School Valentine’s Day dance on February 17, 1974. She was with her boyfriend at the time of her abduction. Her body was found three days later in a cement culvert on Pearl Ranch Road near Benbrook Lake.
The case went unsolved for 46 years before it was reopened in 2019. Male DNA was found on Walker’s bra, police were able to identify the suspect by matching the DNA according to an affidavit for McCurley’s arrest. McCurley was arrested in 2020. He is awaiting trial in the Criminal District Court No. 1 of Tarrant County.
