Convicted killer who drove bus in crash that killed 6 children back behind bars after new arrest

A repeat offender is back in jail in Tennessee after online court records indicate he is facing a slew of new charges related to an alleged domestic violence incident.

On Wednesday, records from the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office list convicted killer Johnthony Walker, 34, in a Nashville jail facing seven new charges relating to this incident.

This is not Walker's first run-in with the law; he was convicted of negligent homicide in a school bus crash that killed six children, and injured dozens more in an incident that happened 10 years ago.

Johnthony Walker, who was convicted in a wreck that killed six children, was indicted on statutory rape charges.

Bus crash tragedy

Documents say Walker, who was working as a school bus driver for a Chattanooga school district at the time, was traveling at high speeds while transporting elementary school students in 2016.

A file photo of the crashed school bus on the scene of the accident in 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Not only was he driving at high speeds, but court records say he was also driving on an unauthorized route when he swerved and hit a mailbox and telephone pole, causing the bus to flip and smash into a tree.

Walker was convicted two years later in 2018, and sentenced to four years in prison, records show.

Statutory rape conviction

Two years after the deadly bus crash conviction, in 2020, the Davidson County District Attorney says Walker pleaded guilty to rape.

Walker was sentenced to six years and one month in prison, to run consecutively to his four-year sentence in the deadly school bus crash case, and was ordered to register as a sex offender.

Johnthony Walker was sentenced to four years in prison. (Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)

Unrelated to the bus crash and rape conviction, Walker was booked into jail on Monday on charges including aggravated assault by strangulation, aggravated burglary, child abuse, interference with an emergency call, and three charges relating to sex-offender violations.