Father of dead 4-year-old girl arrested in Richland

TRI-CITIES, WA. - A Kennewick father charged with first-degree manslaughter following the death of his 4-year-old daughter was arrested Thursday, Jan. 4, only a couple of days after a formal arrest warrant was put out.

Kennewick Police say members of the US Marshal Task Force and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office Pro-Act Team located 30-year-old Joseph Edward C Walker at a Richland residence in the 100 block of Cedarwood Ct. Walker was taken into custody and is set to be booked into the Benton County Jail.

The arrest comes a little more than a week after Kennewick police responded to a call of a 4-year-old girl who had ingested fentanyl pills at the Econo Lodge. The mother, 39-year-old Judy Bribiescas, and Walker have been charged with first-degree manslaughter.

According to court documents obtained earlier this week, a $500,000 arrest warrant was issued for Walker, while Bribiescas is currently being held on $200,000 bail. Walker, who is also being charged with violating a court order, allegedly lived at the Econo Lodge on the 300 block of Ely Street with Bribiescas. A no-contact order had been issued in July 2022 to keep him away from her. However, security footage from the motel showed Walker, Bribiescas, and their two children, a 4-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, walk into the motel room at 8:20 p.m. on Dec. 27, court documents said.

Their 8-year-old son told investigators the couple were in the bathroom for some time to which police previously said they believed they were using drugs at the time. While they were in the bathroom, the 4-year-old girl allegedly swallowed at least two fentanyl pills and had another was later found stuck in her nose, according to doctors as stated in the court documents.

Security video shows Walker open the motel room door at 9:34 p.m. with his daughter in his arms. Before he walks out, he hands the girl to Bribiescas and then runs to his red Tahoe before driving off, less than five minutes before the first police officers arrive on the scene.

When police searched the motel room that Walker and Bribiescas were staying in, they allegedly found more fentanyl pills. Walker has a history of violating protection orders as courts document state in July, he was sentenced to just over a year in prison as part of a drug offender sentencing alternative. It was his fourth conviction for violating a protection order since July 28.

Trial dates for the two parents have not been set as of yet.