James King, 73, is seeking to reverse his convictions and secure a new trial in the 2020 murder of Lexie Walters, arguing his Virginia Beach trial was not fair.
A court document obtained by News 3 contends that Virginia prosecutors should not have been allowed to present evidence from King's previous murder conviction in Ohio during his Virginia Beach trial. King is currently serving two life sentences for sexually assaulting and murdering Walters at a Virginia Beach Days Inn in 2020.
King's appellate brief argues the Ohio evidence did not meet the "modus operandi" standard and should have been rejected because the cases were not similar enough — specifically noting they took place decades apart and in different states. During the initial trial, prosecutors argued — and the trial court agreed — that the evidence shared enough similarities with the 2020 Virginia Beach murder case.
The brief argues that admitting a prior murder conviction in a separate murder trial was prejudicial against King.
"By showing that the accused has a criminal propensity, tends to reverse his presumption of innocence of the crime on trial," the brief reads.
Walters' sister, Marie Jones, is furious over the appeal.
"What he's asking for in his appeal is basically, he's arguing that the courts brought in the evidence from the Ohio case. But if you remember, when he went to the police department to turn himself in, he's the one that brought the Ohio case in when he confessed," Jones said.
Court records show that in 1986, King went to a police station in Ohio and confessed to murdering a woman. He was convicted and served 20 years in prison before being released in 2007.
In 2020, King went to Virginia Beach police and told them he woke up to a woman dead in his hotel room.
King said he woke up at the Days Inn hotel on Bonney Road and found Walters dead on the couch but could not explain what happened to her. King told detectives he and Walters were seeing each other on and off. Prosecutors said the two went to a bar for several hours before the murder, then left and went to the hotel room King had rented at the Days Inn, where the murder took place. Walters was found dead by police after a brutal and violent attack.
King was also convicted of sexually assaulting a third woman in Virginia Beach in 2018 and served one year for that crime.
This appeal is separate from the geriatric conditional release King was considered for just months after his conviction. On Sept. 5, 2025, the Virginia Parole Board denied parole for King and ruled he will not be considered for eligibility again for another three years. King received the parole board hearing because Virginia law allows inmates over the age of 65 who have served a certain amount of time in prison to be considered each year for geriatric conditional release. The parole board can also issue a three-year deferment, which it did in King's case.
Jones wants to change the law and does not think people convicted of more heinous crimes — like murder and rape — should receive these annual hearings regardless of their age.
"It is painful, it's constantly ripping that band-aid off, and they shouldn't be given that chance of a get-out-of-jail-free card, and they shouldn't be able to re-victimize us over and over and over," Jones said.
Her efforts to pass Lexie's Law were unsuccessful last session, but she is working with lawmakers again in the upcoming session.
Jones said she believes King's appeal is another form of victimization against the families he has already harmed.
"He's going for this appeal knowing that it's only going to re-victimize all of us again, to have it all brought back up so, if he can't be out in the public to find somebody else to prey on, he's going to prey on the families that he's already victimized," Jones said.
King has previously denied all requests to be interviewed. His attorney told me per policy he does not comment on pending cases.
