Fort Worth man changes plea to guilty in the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker

After two days of testimony, Glen Samuel McCurley changed his plea to guilty Tuesday in the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker in Fort Worth.

McCurley pleaded guilty to capital murder Tuesday morning in a Tarrant County courtroom, more than 47 years after Walker’s murder. State District Judge Elizabeth Beach sentenced him to an automatic sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

The 78-year-old was arrested in September 2020 at his Fort Worth home after new DNA testing of old evidence connected him to the abduction, rape and murder of Walker, according to Fort Worth police.

After a Valentine’s Day dance at Western Hills High School in 1974, Walker and her boyfriend, Rodney McCoy — who testified Friday at the trial — were sitting in his car near the west side of Fort Worth, according to an arrest warrant affidavit for McCurley filed in 2020.

Walker was leaning against the passenger door when a man opened the door and pulled her from the car, The Dallas Morning News reported at the time. McCoy said Friday that the man severely beat him with a pistol while he reached for Walker.

Walker’s body was found three days later in a culvert near Benbrook Lake.

CRIME

DNA match leads Fort Worth police to arrest man in 1974 murder of 17-year-old girl

BY CATHERINE MARFIN AND CHARLES SCUDDER

McCurley was an early suspect in the case and was interviewed in April 1974 — a few weeks after Walker’s body was found. Although detectives didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him then, he remained a suspect for nearly half a century.

During testimony Friday, Fort Worth detectives John Bennett and Leah Wagner, who reopened the cold case in 2019, said intensive forensics testing matched McCurley’s DNA to semen samples found on Walker’s clothing, ultimately leading to his arrest. Genetic genealogy was used to link McCurley to Walker’s murder.

“Because the Fort Worth Police never gave up, justice for Carla has finally come,” Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson said in a written statement.

Tarrant County prosecutors showed the courtroom footage of detectives interviewing McCurley, in which he admitted killing Walker.

“This is the culmination of countless hours,” Bennett said after the arrest in September. “Being able to give the Walkers the satisfaction after all these years is just indescribable.”

McCurley was immediately sentenced to life in prison and the trial concluded with victim impact statements.

“I wish you had done this a long time ago,” Walker’s sister, Cindy Stone, said to McCurley after he changed his plea, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

“I want to know if you’ve done this to anybody else. You need to bring that out, because those families need to know, too,” Stone said. “You have nothing to lose at this point. Because it’s been hell.”