The Sons of Sante Kimes

I go into the courtroom and I walk up to the witness stand. There are cameras all over the place. My brother Kenny is staring at me like he hates me. My mom has got her back turned to me. She's heaving. I can't tell whether she's laughing or crying. I start talking, but I don't even know what I'm talking about. Everyone is looking at me. They're saying, 'What are you doing, trying to defend your brother?' Then my mom turns around. She starts calling me a traitor. She gets a knife and she starts stabbing me in the gut.

The 40-year-old Walker had this fever dream because of his notorious pedigree. Mom is Sante Kimes, and Kenny is Kenneth K. Kimes, the mother-and-son team of scam-happy grifters who were convicted in May 2000 of killing Irene Silverman, their New York City landlady, as part of a scheme to steal her $10-million townhouse. Those convictions netted both of them terms of more than 120 years to life in prison.

Last year, a Los Angeles County grand jury indicted Sante and Kenny for the slaying of David Kazdin, a Granada Hills businessman found dead in a dumpster near Los Angeles International Airport in March 1998. According to grand jury testimony, Sante and Kenny conspired to kill Kazdin to stop him from implicating them in a real estate and insurance fraud scheme. If convicted of first-degree murder, they both faced the death penalty.

Walker faced the difficult prospect of testifying against Kenny because his younger brother allegedly confessed to him while in a New York state prison. He also was prepared to "defend" Kenny and ask for the jury's mercy for his brother if the case went to a penalty phase. But he was spared that confrontation when Kenny, in a surprise plea earlier this month, acknowledged his guilt in the Kazdin murder. He will be sentenced to life in prison without parole--and spared a possible death penalty--in return for testifying against their mother.

"My God!" Walker said when told of the plea agreement. "I'm kind of in shock."

But Walker's nightmare is far from over. If a jury convicts 69-year-old Sante, her case would go to a penalty phase. With his kid brother having recently cut a deal to keep himself off death row, Walker, Sante Kimes' older son, might represent the best hope for persuading a jury to spare their mother's life. Walker shakes his head as he considers that possibility.

"I have absolutely no defense for her."