Randon Wilkerson is sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of Delmar Police Cpl. Keith Heacook.
Wilkerson also received an additional 212 years and 30 days for other related crimes including possession of a deadly weapon, burglary, and assault.
Wilkerson was found guilty of a total of 16 crimes in mid-October.
In court Friday morning, the prosecution and the defense acknowledged Wilkerson’s long history of drug abuse, mental illness, and violence – Wilkerson was high on meth, cocaine, fentanyl, and marijuana when he murdered Heacook and assaulted an elderly couple in April 2021.
Judge Craig Karsnitz says he believes each crime committed was at the top end in severity, acknowledging no mitigating factors but several aggravating such as depreciation of offenses, the vulnerability of the victims, and a long history of drug and violent crimes.
Karsnitz also notes that Wilkerson’s offensive touching charge came while he was in custody – after police interviewed him, a technician attempted to draw a blood sample for DNA and was kicked by Wilkerson.
State prosecutor David Hume says Wilkerson shattered lives and families and read statements from Heacook’s wife, who says the death of her husband is the most devastating experience she has ever had to endure, and his 14-year-old son, who says he misses his dad and will never forgive Wilkerson.
Hume goes on to say the elderly couple who were assaulted, Steven and Judith Franklin, say the incident was the worst day of their lives.
Hume says Wilkerson comes from a family that “values education and morality," who encouraged him to get help for more than a decade. Wilkerson’s attorney Patrick Collins made similar statements but says the power of addiction, in addition to mental health issues, a “dual diagnosis,” fueled at least a dozen overdoses and several suicide attempts in Wilkerson’s life.
Capri Simmons is Wilkerson’s mother.
“We just want to express sorrow and great sympathy for everyone who has been impacted by this," she says.
Wilkerson addressed the court himself, acknowledging he had caused “sadness and distress.” He says killing and assaulting the elderly is “not who [he] is.”
“I thought something horrible was going on,” Wilkerson says. “And I was doing the right thing.”
Wilkerson and his attorney claim Wilkerson’s delusion was that a child molester was on the loose in the neighborhood, and at the time, Wilkerson believed he killed a rapist, not a police officer.
Heacook’s sister, Anita Feaster, says Wilkerson made a choice every day to continue down the wrong path.
“I don’t care if you take drugs, you know what you did,” she says. “He knows what he did.”
Feaster says the family can start to heal now that justice has been served, and Wilkerson will “never see the light of day.”
“It never will be the same,” Feaster says. “We’re just trying to pick up the pieces.”
Delmar Police Chief Ivan Barkley says the community will never be the same, but can now start to move forward.
“People retired because the incident took an emotional toll on them," Barkley says. "Those young men and women that went in there that morning to pull Cpl. Heacook out, that’s devastating.”
Delmar Mayor Thomas Bauer says he hopes the community can start to move on and heal.
“He’s got a long time to think about what he did," Bauer says. "And maybe, somehow, anybody else who is doing drugs and has addiction problems, maybe they’ll think about what just happened to him and maybe they’ll get cleaned up and sober, we can only hope.”
Bauer says the Delmar community is tight-knit, and Heacook Fest will carry on indefinitely. He adds the couple who were assaulted– Steven and Judith Franklin – still live in Delmar, but are suffering physically and emotionally every day.
