BEAUMONT, Texas — A former Beaumont Independent School District electrical contractor may soon spend six months in jail and have to pay back $1.2 million.
The Texas Court of Criminal appeals on Wednesday rejected Calvin Walker's petition seeking to overrule a lower court's decision upholding his conviction.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the state's highest court of appeals.
Walker was sentenced to 10-years on probation by the Jefferson County Criminal District court in 2019 after he was found guilty of securing execution of a document by deception.
If he violates his probation he could spend 10 years in prison.
He was found guilty after five days of testimony by a jury of ten women and two men who were selected from a pool of 200 Jefferson County residents.
He was also ordered to serve six months “up front” time in jail as part of his probation.
A $10,000 fine was also levied against Walker at the time.
He appealed the conviction to the Ninth Court of Appeals, but it upheld the conviction. He then appealed to the Criminal Court of Appeals.
It's decision to reject Walker's latest petition was posted Wednesday to its website.
In November of 2019, Walker filed a "sentencing memoranda," arguing that the trial court should not order restitution. Walker claimed that double jeopardy was intact, the court did not order restitution in its oral pronouncements and written judgment, and that the trial court lacked the power to order restitution.
The court found all these claims lacked merit. According to appellant court documents, Walker is still required to pay more than $1 million in restitution to the school district and serve the rest of his sentence.
Walker was indicted in 2014 after he used, “fraudulent billing practices and submitted fake invoices to defraud the district,” according to previous reporting by 12News.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.