SALISBURY, Md. - The Office of the State’s Attorney for Wicomico County has announced the sentencing of a Salisbury man convicted of murdering his father over a rent dispute in 2025.
As WBOC previously reported, police were initially called to a home on Parsons Road for a welfare check on February 22 of 2025. There, they found the body of 57-year-old Roy Walters. A fatal shooting was believed to have occurred hours before Walters was discovered.
Roy Walters’ son, Ja’Bril Walters was quickly identified as the suspect. Investigators say Ja’Bril received a Facebook message from his father demanding that he pay his fair share of rent or would be evicted. Ja’Bril Walters then shot his father seven times, according to police.
Prosecutors say Ja’Bril Walters fled to North Carolina and then to Maine, where he was arrested in July of 2025.
On June 24, 2026, Walters was convicted of murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, illegal possession of a regulated firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, and altering physical evidence.
Courtesy of the Wicomico County Department of Corrections
A Wicomico County Circuit Court judge sentenced Walters, now 33, on Sept. 18 to life without the possibility of parole.
“The taking of a life is a sinister crime, and even more so when a son murders their own father in cold blood,” Wicomico County State’s Attorney Jamie L. Dykes said. “The Court’s strong sentence ensures that this Defendant will be imprisoned for the remainder of his life where he can no longer harm others in our community.”
