Medford man gets prison for carjacking crash, stabbing

Nick Morgan, Ashland Daily Tidings, Ore.
·2 min read

Jun. 18—A Medford man will serve more than eight years in prison for a carjacking turned drunken driving crash, and for a separate knife attack that left a man needing stitches on his neck.

Alfred Lee Walker Jr., 56, pleaded no-contest Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court to robbery, assault and impaired driving charges.

Walker's charges stemmed from a January 2020 carjacking outside the Rogue Valley Mall that led to an Eagle Point crash that injured two of his passengers, and for a March 21 stabbing in Ashland, according to a release issued by the Jackson County District Attorney's Office and sentencing briefs filed in Walker's case.

A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but has the same legal consequences as a guilty plea.

At about 6:30 p.m. Jan. 5, 2020, Walker and passengers Tiffani Morning Star Cortez and Cheyenne Eagle Cortez approached the owner and passenger of a 1999 Honda Civic hatchback in the mall parking lot and told them, "this is a robbery," according to the release issued by Deputy District Attorneys Virginia Greer, Lucy Durst and Samantha Olson, who prosecuted the cases.

At 7:43 p.m., Walker reportedly T-boned a Ford F-350 near the at the intersection of Alta Vista and Bigham Brown roads in Eagle Point, according to the release. He blew .15% blood-alcohol content, nearly twice the legal limit of .08%.

The car's owner described Walker as "very heavily intoxicated" at the time of the robbery in an earlier news report.

Tiffani and Cheyenne Cortez still face second-degree robbery charges for their alleged roles in the carjacking. Court records show that Tiffani Cortez is scheduled to change her plea June 25, and Cheyenne has a June 25 pretrial conference .

The knife attack was first reported at 8:09 p.m. March 21 at the Stop n' Shop market at 110 Lithia Way, where Ashland police reportedly found a man bleeding from a 3-inch cut on the neck that required stitches.

Police followed the blood trail to an alley way nearby, and the victim later identified Walker as the assailant in a photo lineup.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Mejia sentenced Walker Thursday to a mandatory minimum 100 months in prison, and ordered him to repay a combined $86,652.64 in restitution, records show.

Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or nmorgan@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MTCrimeBeat.