Ex-Cougar Pleads Guilty To Murder Walker Says He Hired Teen To Kill Man For ‘Messing With His Wife’

A former Washington State baseball star has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the violent death of a man he believed had been “messing with his wife.”

Michael Glen Walker, 38, of suburban Auburn, entered the plea in King County Superior Court on March 30.

Walker faces a sentence of 20 to 26 years at sentencing June 9, said spokesman Dan Donohoe in the prosecutor’s office, adding that prosecutors will seek a 26-year term.

Walker said he hired a 16-year-old - Arthur Loren Fegley of Enumclaw - to kill William S. Stahlman, also of Enumclaw, last July 24. Fegley, who told authorities Walker had promised him a 1986 Buick for the killing, is scheduled for trial June 27.

Stahlman apparently had been involved with Walker’s girlfriend, Meriel Hinton, before she became involved with Walker. In the weeks before the murder, Stahlman had been helping Hinton sell some property, an arrangement that had become a point of conflict between Stahlman and Walker, according to court records.

While Walker listed Hinton as his wife in arrest records, the two were never married, prosecutors say.

Walker and Fegley went to Stahlman’s home last July 24 and found him mowing his lawn. They went inside, where Fegley shot Stahlman in the chest with a .32 caliber semiautomatic pistol.

The gun jammed and Stahlman managed to crawl outside, where Fegley cut his throat almost to the bone with a 12-inch machete. The gunshot would have been fatal, but Stahlman was alive when his throat was cut, prosecutors say.

A neighbor found Stahlman’s body two days later and reported seeing a pickup - whose description matched that of Walker’s truck - at the house about the time of the shooting.

Walker, a Cougars outfielder, catcher and designated hitter with a .362 career batting average, was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 1980. He set WSU single-season records with 21 home runs and 76 runs batted in his senior year and was Pac-10 North Division Most Valuable Player. His WSU career average was .362.At the time of his arrest, he said he was working as a bartender at the Eager Beaver in Enumclaw.