Nolan Stallings pleaded guilty months before a judge imposed the sentence in a Harris County child-injury case.

HOUSTON, Texas — A 19-year-old Texas man has been sentenced to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty to seriously injuring his girlfriend’s 8-year-old brother, who died days after being hospitalized with injuries authorities said resulted from prolonged abuse.

District Judge Michele Oncken sentenced Nolan Stallings on Aug. 17 after a hearing that lasted about 2½ hours and included testimony from seven witnesses. Stallings had pleaded guilty in April to first-degree felony injury to a child causing serious bodily injury. The plea resolved his part of a case that began in February 2025, when deputies were summoned to a Baytown hospital after the badly injured boy was brought there for treatment. Stallings had faced a possible sentence of up to life in prison.

The child, identified by his family as Charles Walker and in court records by the initials C.W., arrived at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital on Feb. 10, 2025, with multiple injuries. Harris County sheriff’s investigators said those injuries did not fit the explanation initially given for what had happened. Charles remained in critical condition for several days before dying Feb. 15, according to medical examiner records cited in local reporting.

Authorities traced the injuries to a home in the 100 block of Greendell Street in Highlands, an unincorporated community in eastern Harris County. Prosecutors alleged that Stallings struck Charles with his hand and with a blunt object. Court records also accused Stallings of failing to protect the boy and failing to obtain medical care for him in a timely way. Investigators described the mistreatment as occurring over several days before the child was taken to the hospital.

The account given at the hospital became an important early point in the investigation. Stallings allegedly said Charles had been injured in a fall, and investigators later told local television reporters that he had said the boy “fell down a lot.” Deputies and medical personnel, however, concluded that the pattern and severity of the injuries were consistent with abuse. That conclusion led investigators away from an accidental-fall explanation and toward a criminal investigation centered on the Highlands residence.

Prosecutors were preparing a wide range of evidence in the event Stallings went to trial. Court records reviewed by the Houston Chronicle showed that the potential evidence included photographs from the scene, hospital records, an autopsy report, cellphone information and statements given to police by Stallings and Charles’ older sister, Kara Walker. The records said prosecutors believed Charles had been abused over a period of days and that the resulting injuries caused his death. Stallings’ guilty plea in April meant jurors never had to weigh that evidence at a trial.

Stallings was arrested in March 2025. At the time of the alleged abuse, he was 17 and was dating Walker, Charles’ older sister. He was initially held on a $1 million bond and spent about 40 days in jail before posting bond, according to the Houston Chronicle. His age became part of earlier court proceedings, with his defense noting that the February incident occurred shortly before his 18th birthday and that he was still a high school student. A judge declined to reduce his bond.

The investigation later widened. Walker was arrested Aug. 27, 2025, more than six months after her brother’s death and charged with the same offense: injury to a child causing serious bodily injury. Prosecutors accused her of striking Charles with a blunt object and alleged that the abuse occurred over several days. She was 17 when she was arrested and, according to testimony at an early hearing, was still attending high school and living with her parents before being taken into custody.

Walker has publicly denied harming her brother. In a jail interview with Houston television station KPRC in 2025, she said she was falsely accused and challenged investigators’ interpretation of material found on her phone. She acknowledged that investigators had recovered a note and text messages but disputed that they proved she abused Charles. Her family also publicly supported her, arguing that they did not believe she was responsible for the injuries. Those statements remain claims by Walker and her relatives; her criminal case has not been resolved in the reporting reviewed for this article.

Charles’ family has described the boy in personal terms that contrast with the clinical language of the court records. His relatives said he was known as “little man” and remembered him as generous and eager to make other people happy. His father, Cecil Walker, said the family had been told that the force involved in Charles’ injuries was comparable to the kind of trauma that could occur in a very high-speed vehicle crash. The description underscored why investigators rejected the suggestion that ordinary falls accounted for the child’s condition.

The legal charge used in the case is significant because neither Stallings nor Walker was initially charged with murder. Instead, prosecutors pursued injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony under Texas law when charged under the circumstances described in the case. Stallings’ guilty plea established his criminal responsibility under that charge. Walker, by contrast, remains accused and retains the presumption of innocence unless she enters a guilty plea or is convicted.

The sentencing also marked a change in Stallings’ legal position. For more than a year after his arrest, the case remained one in which prosecutors would have been required to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. His April guilty plea eliminated that contest over guilt and shifted the remaining question to punishment. At the August hearing, Oncken heard from seven witnesses before imposing 40 years in state prison. The available reporting did not provide a complete public transcript of the testimony given during that hearing.

Some details about what happened inside the Highlands home have not been publicly established in the reports reviewed for this story. Authorities have not released a comprehensive, minute-by-minute account of the alleged abuse, and earlier investigators did not publicly identify a motive. The public record instead describes a series of injuries, the delay before medical treatment, the statements made after Charles reached the hospital and the evidence investigators later assembled from the home, medical records and electronic devices.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office declined to discuss Stallings’ case in detail after his sentencing because the prosecution of Walker was still active. That distinction remains important: Stallings has admitted guilt and received his punishment, while allegations against Walker must be considered separately in court. The most recent reliable reporting reviewed for this article did not identify a later final disposition of Walker’s case.

Stallings is now serving a 40-year state-prison sentence stemming from Charles’ death. The punishment closes his prosecution more than a year after the child was hospitalized, while the separate case against Walker leaves part of the broader investigation before the courts.

Author note: Last updated Sept. 28, 2026.