VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — “She is dying anyway.”

Those words, spoken by 71-year-old James King to a bartender on Sept. 16, 2020, foreshadowed his brutal murder and sexual assault of Lexie Walters in Virginia Beach.

King murdered and sexually assaulted Walters in the Days Inn hotel room they were staying in, after getting her drunk at bar. Walters was strangled and sexually assaulted before her death. She was found with similar injuries to a murder King committed in 1986 in Lucas County, Ohio. He was sentenced for 20 years in that case. In both cases, King was the one to turn himself in to police.

Walters and King were in an on and off relationship when they went to a bar the night of her death.

King ordered five Budweiser beers for himself throughout their visit. Meanwhile, he purchased four rum and Cokes and 12 Fireball whisky shots for Walters. After the bartender cut the two off upon seeing the amount of drinks Walters consumed, King tried to bribe the bartender with a large tip and said, “She is dying anyway.”

King and Walters left the bar and went to the hotel room at the Days Inn on Bonney Road. Surveillance showed them entering the room together — the last time Walters was seen alive.

An hour later, King left and went to his vehicle. He was seen making several trips to his vehicle and hotel room throughout the evening and the next morning.

On the morning of Sept. 17, 2020, King went to the Virginia Beach Police Department precinct to notify police of the body in his hotel, wanting them to find it before housekeeping.

He told those at the department, “I’ve flipped out before,” “I did a murder gig in Ohio,” and “I did the same thing I’m doing right now.” He admitted that on the way to the police station, he drove around drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and taking cash out of his bank account because he knew he was going to jail.

Police responded to the Days Inn and found Walters’ dead body on a couch.

She suffered asphyxiation by strangling and smothering, blunt force trauma to her face, shoulders, right breast, right hip and abdomen, petechiae of her face, eyes and mouth and blunt force injuries to her genitalia.

King was found guilty on Oct. 17, 2024, of first-degree murder, first-degree murder while committing object sexual penetration and object sexual penetration.

In 1990, King was convicted of a similar murder in 1986 in Lucas County, Ohio. In that case, the victim was the mother of the bride at a wedding King attended. There was evidence of sexual assault, and her injuries were similar to Walters’. King appeared at the police station in Lucas County and turned himself in. Police later found the victim’s body in King’s apartment.

King also attacked a woman in Virginia Beach in 2018 and was sentenced to 12 months for assault and battery.