Prostitute Guilty of Murder in Brother Rice Teacher's Stabbing Death

The 22-year-old woman who visited a Brother Rice teacher’s Orland Park home in 2014 for sex, only to flee after stabbing the drunken 61-year-old man to death when their $300 transaction turned sour, was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday night.

A jury deliberated for six hours after a three-day trial. Closing arguments were delivered Thursday afternoon.

Alisha Walker, 22, of Ohio, teared up at the verdict, according to DNAinfo Chicago, reporting from the courthouse. Walker got teary-eyed during the trial, too, when photographs of the Al Filan’s stabbed and bloody body were shown.

Walker refrained from testifying in her own defense Wednesday. She was charged with first-degree murder, but the jury found her guilty of the lesser charge.

Filan, who taught at Brother Rice for 39 years and was a popular but gruff figure at the school, was drunk that night, with his blood alcohol content measured at 0.208, according to the Cook County medical examiner. Police found empty beer cans and an open tequila bottle in his home, according to earlier testimony. Filan ordered Walker’s services from Backpage.com, and she arrived at his house with another young woman for a threesome. Walker had visited Filan at two times previously, earning $1,000 for the time they spent together.

Jim Papa, the Cook County assistant state’s attorney prosecuting the case, said Walker grabbed the knife first and attacked when Filan took back his money. Prosecutors contended that Walker was after Filan’s money any way she could get it.

Walker’s lawyer said Filan, who claimed the women “catfished” him because the second prostitute did not resemble her photograph, grew nasty during their negotiations over the terms of their sexual transaction, got physical first, called her a “stupid bitch” and grabbed for the kitchen knife.

Walker wrestled the knife away, her lawyer Patrick O’Byrne said, and slashed at the teacher to defend herself and the other woman. O’Byrne scoffed at the prosecution’s contention that Walker was intent on ripping off Filan through violence.

“She doesn’t have to pull a knife to get money,” O’Byrne said Thursday, according to the DNAinfo account. “All she’s gotta do is take off her clothes.”

O’Byrne also insisted the wounds inflicted on Filan were superficial and clearly made in self-defense. Prosecutors noted Filan was stabbed in the heart, kidney, spleen and liver.

After knifing him, Walker stepped over Filan’s body, leaving bloody high-heeled bootprints on the floor, and escaped into the winter night. Five days later, police found her in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and took her into custody.

Filan died in his kitchen, drunk and alone. His body was found a few days later when he failed to show up for school. A police officer was sent to his house, saw his body through a window, and broke down the front door.

Al Filan in the classroom

In the days that followed, Filan’s colleagues and students mourned and offered observations about his personality and character. They remembered him as a firm disciplinarian, and as a teacher who tried to help struggling students. They remembered him as an inspiring coach, who got animated on the sidelines and threw his clipboard. And they recalled his funny catchphrases: “Sit down and quit embarrassing your parents. Here’s a quarter … call someone who cares.“

Little did they know, their teacher liked to spend his money on sex with desperate, troubled young women barely older than his students. Walker was 20 at the time. She’d left home at 18, and turned to prostitution upon her arrival in Chicago.

As the Catholic school students grieved, police tracked down the last woman to see him alive. She was hiding out in a Motel 6. Investigators found bloody pants and a blood-stained $50 bill. After her arrest and five hours of questioning, investigators finally told Walker that Filan was dead.

She cried then, too.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, sobbing, according to an interrogation video shown at her trial. “Oh, my God.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Christa Bowden said Walker, who has a history of prostitution, battery and drug arrests, was a ”master manipulator” who spun a deceitful tale about the events of the evening.

“Alisha Walker thought Alan Filan would be easy money,” Bowden said.

Filan’s duplicitous life and behavior, however, may have swayed the jury away from convicting her of first-degree murder.

Walker’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 11. She faces up to 20 years in prison.

“This is the end of a tragedy,” O’Byrne told the Chicago Tribune when all was said and done.