College Football Player Who Killed Cheerleader Ex Said She Broke Up With Him in 'Cruel' Way: 'You Need a Life'

The Tennessee college football player who fatally shot his cheerleader ex-girlfriend told police he was distraught when she broke up with him in what he felt was a “cruel” manner, according to an interview recording with detectives played at his murder trial Monday.

“She told me, ‘You need to stop. You’re crazy. You need a life,’ “William Riley Gaul told Knox County Sheriff’s Office detectives the day in 2016 when the parents of Emma Walker, 16, found her dead in her bedroom in her Knoxville home, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Prosecutors and the defense agree that Gaul, now 19, a former student and wide receiver at Maryville College in Tennessee, fatally shot Walker through the wall of her bedroom as she slept.

Prosecutors allege the killing was premeditated and that he was obsessed with Walker; his defense argues that Gaul didn’t mean to hit Walker when he fired, but instead made a deadly mistake as part of a twisted plot to present himself as Walker’s rescuer to win her back after she broke up with him.

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Gaul was arrested in November 2016, a day after the fatal shooting. In January 2017 he was indicted on seven criminal counts in the case, including first-degree murder and especially aggravated stalking.

During questioning, he told investigators, “I hope to God I am not a suspect,” Gaul said, according to the News Sentinel. “I would hurt myself before I’d hurt her, and that’s what I’ve done. … I don’t know anyone who would want to hurt that girl.”

Gaul told investigators he last spoke to Walker at about midnight on her last night alive, hours before he shot her, the News Sentinel reports.

He initially said that after she told him to stop calling her, he spent hours in the parking lot of his dorm, crying and looking at pictures on his phone before going to bed at about 4:45 a.m.

But investigators were able to pinpoint that Gaul’s phone was near Walker’s home at about 3:45 a.m. — the same time witnesses heard gunshots, the News Sentinel reports. Now, Gaul and his defense team concede he shot Walker.

Gaul Allegedly Staged Kidnapping to Win Walker’s Sympathy

On Friday, Walker Stanley, Gaul’s roommate and football teammate, testified that after the shooting, Gaul showed up at their dorm at 4:45 a.m. and fell asleep, WVLT reports.

“He said he’d been out,” Stanley testified. “That was it. And then he asked if I could help him get up for his 8 a.m. [class].”

After Emma’s body was discovered, Gaul sent Stanley a text on Snapchat asking him not to talk to police, Stanley testified.

Hours before the shooting, Gaul also asked Stanley if he knew how to remove fingerprints from a gun, Stanley testified, according to the News Sentinel. Previous testimony alleged that Gaul had put the same question to another friend, Noah Walton, but claimed to be asking on behalf of Stanley.

Stanley testified that while he didn’t know Gaul very well, he seemed to be having problems, the newspaper reports.

“I could tell he just wasn’t in a good place in his life,” said Stanley. “He was losing weight.”

Gaul allegedly exhibited bizarre behavior in the days before the shooting. He allegedly staged his own kidnapping to win Walker’s sympathy, her friends testified last week. After the shooting, Gaul asked friends — who secretly videotaped the conversation for investigators — to help him ditch a gun he said he stole from his grandfather since he believed police would think he killed Walker if it were found in his possession.

Unbeknownst to him, Gaul was being watched by police when he went to the Tennessee River to dispose of the gun, but he was arrested before he was able to do so, the News Sentinel reports.

Closing arguments began Tuesday. Gaul decided not to testify.