A 20-year-old who viciously beat a man to death after an encounter in downtown Stockton has been convicted of first-degree murder, the San Joaquin County district attorney’s office announced Thursday.
Walter Green, who was 18 at the time of the attack and listed on jail records as 6-foot tall and weighing 160 pounds, pummeled Loren Faria, stomping on his face and using the man’s own walker to strike him about 15 times, prosecutors said. Faria, 59, had limited mobility and needed the walker to get around.
An autopsy found that Faria had suffered multiple skull fractures, severe brain injuries, facial lacerations and broken ribs in the fatal April 2023 attack.
Green confessed to the killing, saying that he believed Faria deserved to die and that he would repeat the assault if given the chance, the D.A.’s office said.
“Walter Green’s vicious, unrepentant attack on a defenseless man shocked the conscience of our community and I am profoundly grateful to the jury for their ironclad resolve in delivering justice,” District Attorney Ron Freitas said Thursday in a statement. The jury’s “decision stands as a powerful rebuke to such monstrous cruelty.”
Faria’s murder arose from an encounter with Green at the RTD transit bus station in downtown Stockton. Green accused Faria of “inappropriate behavior” — the district attorney’s office didn’t provide details — and lured him to a secluded area. It was there that Green initiated the attack, prosecutors said.
Faria was described in a Stockton Record story at the time of the killing as a gentle soul. He was a churchgoing man of Filipino descent who lived downtown and was known for doing favors for his neighbors, the news outlet reported.
Green faces 25 years to life in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for April 21.