The father of a 1-year-old baby girl killed in a drive-by shooting last year in Kent faces two counts of first-degree promoting prostitution for allegedly forcing an 18-year-old woman to give him all the money she made working as a prostitute in Seattle.
King County prosecutors charged Martrice Donta Walker, also known as Martrice Grant, on April 27 with promoting prostitution. He is scheduled to be arraigned on May 11 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. He remains in custody at the county jail in Seattle with bail set at $300,000. Walker, 30, reportedly profited from prostitution by forcing the woman to work for him from June 2014 through March 2016.
Malijah Grant died after being struck by a bullet while riding in the back of her parents car on April 16, 2015. Marty L. Kime pleaded not guilty in January to the drive-by murder. County prosecutors say Kime targeted the baby’s father as part of a gang retaliation shooting, but a shot hit the girl instead. She died two days later at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Malijah lived in Kent with her parents.
Walker and the girl’s mother appeared at a Kent Police press conference shortly after the shooting to ask for help to find the killer. Walker at the news conference denied any gang connections. He held up photos of his daughter in front of TV cameras and newspaper photographers and told people to come forward to help solve the murder.
According to charging papers, Walker worked as a pimp before and after the death of his daughter. Seattle Police arrested Walker on Saturday for promoting prostitution after charges were filed and a warrant went out for his arrest. Seattle Police had arrested the woman for prostitution in March 2015 during a Aurora Avenue North prostitution sting. That’s when she first told detectives about Walker, a pimp known as “Fast.”
Walker and the woman apparently first met in 2013 through mutual friends. They later started to date. Walker told her to go back to work as as stripper in Seattle and he would take all of the money she earned. He said he would keep it so they could buy a house together. He also got her addicted to cocaine, the woman claimed.
Walker later forced her to start walking Aurora Avenue North to pick up men to pay for sex. He threatened to hurt her if she didn’t walk the “track” in reference to Aurora Avenue. He also had the woman get dates through ads on backpage.com. She worked out Seattle and SeaTac hotels, where men would show up and pay for sex.
The woman told detectives that Walker became very violent toward her last year after his daughter was shot and killed. Prior to having sex with her, he slammed down a handgun on a hotel counter because she was hesitant about having sex with him. He then took all of her money and left the hotel room.
Walker told the woman he planned to go and kill the person responsible for his baby’s death and told her that he had killed other people in the past. He also threatened to kill her family if she talked to police. She said he claimed to have as many as 20 girls working for him. She once saw him with more than $20,000 cash in his possession.
Detectives used information gathered through search warrants at hotels as well as social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to help connect Walker to the woman. A phone belonging to Walker that Kent Police collected after the shooting of Malijah also helped Seattle Police with the case.
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