Twenty-three years ago Angela Walker beat a man to death in an Old Orchard Beach confrontation stemming from an insult the victim had hurled at her.
Walker is now looking – and hoping – for forgiveness as she embarks on a municipal political career.
She’s among nine candidates seeking a seat on the Bangor city council.
Walker was convicted and later imprisoned in the brutal killing of Derek Rogers, a Canadian tourist who had allegedly called her a racist name.
Cops found that Rogers had been severely beaten and then suffocated to death with sand forced down his throat.
“That’s my past,” Walker told the Bangor Daily News as she announced her council candidacy. “I don’t live there anymore and I’m a different person.”
She also said she understands and respects people who have hesitations about her criminal history.
Sgt. Rogers, of Russell, Ontario, was 48, a career officer in the Canadian military.
His lifeless body was found on the beach August 1, 2002 in a section of the popular coastal beach town known as Ocean Park.
He had been a musician who played trombone for the Canadian Central Command Band.
Rogers, whose family had vacationed in Old Orchard for generations, had spent several weeks at the beach with his wife of 20 years, Faith, police said at the time.
She had left Old Orchard to return to work, but Rogers was staying longer.
He was found dead by a fisherman shortly after 3 a.m. on the boardwalk along the beach a quarter-mile from the cottage he rented.
Before cops were able to identify Rogers, police had to interview roughly 400 people to try to find out who he was, how he died and who killed him.
Walker, then 29, later admitted to the killing and lying to cops in exchange for a 10-year manslaughter sentence. The admission was in exchange for a reduced murder charge.
An Associated Press account of her courtroom appearance said Walker, “dressed in gray sweat pants and sweat shirt with her black hair neatly pulled back, admitted her guilt to the judge in a clear, emotionless voice.”
