{"id":259676,"date":"2026-08-05T14:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/259676\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T14:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:08:12","slug":"murder-conviction-overturned-in-fatal-shooting-of-officer-moses-walker-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/259676\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder conviction overturned in fatal shooting of Officer Moses Walker Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. \u2014 A man accused of fatally shooting a Philadelphia Police officer had his conviction overturned after serving a decade of his life sentence, NBC Philadelphia reported. <\/a><\/p>\n

A judge overturned the murder conviction of Rafael Jones due to disgraced detective Philip Nordo\u2019s involvement with the case. Nordo was later found to have sexually assaulted witnesses and informants. He was sentenced to 24.5 to 49 years in prison in 2019. <\/p>\n

| RELATED: Choose the right real-time policing model for your agency<\/a><\/p>\n

Officer Moses Walker Jr. <\/a>was shot and killed as he returned home from a shift on Aug. 18, 2012, NBC reported. He noticed two men following him and attempted to evade before they caught up to him and announced it was a robbery. <\/p>\n

Walker then drew his gun, at which point he was shot multiple times. He had served with the Philadelphia Police Department for 19 years. <\/p>\n

Investigators later arrested Jones and Chancier McFarland in the case. Both pleaded guilty. <\/p>\n

McFarland was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison in 2014 after testifying against Jones. Jones was sentenced to life in prison, as investigators at the time determined it was he who fired the fatal shot. <\/p>\n

On Aug. 3, a judge overturned Jones\u2019s conviction and ordered a new trial for him because of Nordo\u2019s involvement. Nordo had threatened to rape Jones\u2019s cousin, who was interviewed in the investigation because he had a similar car to one seen leaving the scene, NBC reported. <\/p>\n

That informant did not testify during the first trial. Jones\u2019s confession, which was provided to Nordo, also was not used. <\/p>\n

Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner stated that his office would appeal the decision, as his office holds that the result of the case was \u201clegally correct\u201d and a retrial is unnecessary. <\/p>\n

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 President Roosevelt Poplar told NBC 10 that the judges decision in the case was \u201cdisappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there with the family with Moses Walker\u2019s mother and brother,\u201d Poplar said. \u201cThis just reopens wounds that the family is trying to heal. And of course they will never heal. But to do this, it\u2019s just making them relive this moment in their life all over again which is totally a tragedy for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Bernalillo<\/p>\n

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\n The lawsuits alleged Bernalillo County knowingly operated an aging helicopter with serious mechanical problems before the deadly crash\n <\/p>\n

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\n A bystander was also wounded in the Albuquerque Police officer-involved shooting\n <\/p>\n

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\"489833613_995116736134153_1475643161945127894_n.jpg\"<\/p>\n

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\n After Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood vowed to continue working with ICE, sheriffs in Niagara and Cattaraugus counties spoke out against the \u201cLocal Cops, Local Crimes\u201d Act\n <\/p>\n

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\n Chad Williams opened fire at an In-N-Out Burger, killing three people and wounding seven; he was distracted from his rampage by an off-duty officer and an armed bystander\n <\/p>\n

August 03, 2026 11:54 AM<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Cybergenetics<\/p>\n

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\n The same DNA data connected firearm evidence to an armed robbery suspect, without retesting the evidence\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA, Pa. \u2014 A man accused of fatally shooting a Philadelphia Police officer had his conviction overturned after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-259676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}