A Fatal Bar Fight Punch Landed Walter Triplett Jr. in Prison for 20 Years. Here’s Where He Is Now — and Why His Case Has Divided I Am a Killer Viewers

The firsthand accounts depicted in Netflix’s I Am a Killer are horrifying, tragic and controversial. But no case has viewers split on whether or not the sentencing was truly warranted as much as Walter Triplett Jr.’s.

Filmmakers interviewed Walter for the sixth season of the anthology docuseries, which was released on Jan. 8. The episode titled “Defense of Another” investigates how the former bouncer was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he punched and killed Michael Corrado during a bar fight in Cleveland in 2009.

Walter claimed he acted in defense of his twin sister, who he said was punched by another man during a brawl that his group didn’t initiate. But the jury found him guilty of felonious assault in September 2009, and he was sentenced to a maximum of 18 years. That conviction was overturned by the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals in 2011, which cited erroneous and confusing jury instructions as the reason for reversing the ruling, per Cleveland.com.  

He was tried again, under the same judge and a new jury, and found guilty of felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to a new maximum of 20 years in prison. 

“I did not want this man to die,” Walter said in I Am a Killer. “I did not want this man to lose his life. I feel empathy and sorrow for his family … They lost a lot … But I believe that the people that chased us out and attacked us are responsible for Michael Corrado’s death.”

So, what happened to Walter Triplett Jr.? Here’s everything to know about the case — and the circumstances surrounding the fatal punch that landed him a 20-year prison sentence.

Who is Walter Triplett Jr.?

Walter Triplett Jr. is a former bouncer convicted of killing Michael Corrado during a bar fight in 2009. He grew up in Cleveland with his twin sister, Waltonya Triplett, and their two older siblings.

“Even though we’re twins, she was always kinda like my little sister,” he said in the docuseries. “She was mine to protect. She was mine to look after.”

In I Am a Killer, Walter said he started getting into trouble with the law when he was a teen after his mother was diagnosed with cancer and his parents started having marital problems. He first went to prison when he was 17 and was convicted on eight separate occasions for crimes such as robbery, felonious assault and promoting prostitution. He was released from a three-year stint in 2007.

At the time of the murder, Walter had welcomed his first child, enrolled in college and started a venue security business. In 2009, his father told Cleveland.com that he was proud of how long his son had stayed out of trouble. 

“He was doing so good,” Walter Triplett Sr. said. “I’m proud of my son. He had the opportunity to get back in the streets. But he chose to better himself.”

Who was Michael Corrado?

Michael Corrado was the victim of a fatal bar fight in 2009. Originally from Detroit, the 22-year-old moved to Ohio to run a toy store. At the time of his death, his ex-fiance Adriane Cremeans, told Cleveland.com that he was thinking of joining the military or becoming a police officer.

“Michael was just the best guy,” said one of Corrado’s relatives in I Am a Killer, who remained anonymous in the docuseries. “He was the best person, a super kind, gentle soul … He was really never not there for the people he cared about.”

Who is Waltonya Triplett? 

Waltonya Triplett is Walter’s twin sister. She claimed that during the 2009 incident, an unidentified man hit her while she was trying to break up a street fight, per Cleveland.com. Her twin brother witnessed the attack and punched two men: the man who attacked his sister and Corrado.

Police said that they interviewed three other witnesses who supported that version of events. Video of both assaults were also found on security cameras, according to I Am a Killer.

“He was a protector,” she said in the true crime docuseries. “Walter protected me. So I’ve lived with that guilt.”

Tom Armelli, the retired Cleveland detective who initially investigated the case, told filmmakers that police never identified the man who attacked Waltonya but that Walter had no right to punch Corrado.

“There’s a difference between what is right and what is legal,” he said. “And Walter really had no legal justification for going down there and punching Michael Corrado.”

How did Michael Corrado die?

In I Am a Killer, Walter alleged that on April 30, 2009, he went out to a bar to celebrate a cousin’s birthday, and a fight broke out within minutes of their arrival. A member of Walter’s group was punched. Though he maintained that his family weren’t the aggressors, it’s unclear what started the brawl.

When the bouncers kicked everyone out, Walter said that “about 10 or 12 White guys” chased him and his family out of the bar. Multiple fights broke out along the street, during which Walter said two men approached Waltonya — and one of them punched her.

“Everything else was biological,” he said in I Am a Killer. “I had to protect my sister.”

According to Walter, he punched and knocked out the two men. One got up and ran. The other, Corrado, did not. When he fell backward, he hit his head on a curb.

Walter was arrested for assault, and Corrado was transported to the hospital, where he was put on a respirator for 18 hours. He died of a massive head injury, per Cleveland.com.

Did the police ever find the man who allegedly assaulted Waltonya Triplett? 

Waltonya maintained that two men attacked her on April 30, 2009. Police have never identified the second man, who fled the scene. But Detective Armelli told In I Am a Killer filmmakers that they found no evidence that Corrado ever punched or attempted to punch Waltonya. 

“We don’t know what Michael was thinking or what he was doing that night,” he said. “Maybe he was just cutting across the street and ended up next to this guy. So, it’s entirely possible that Michael Corrado did absolutely nothing wrong and lost his life that night just based on the fact that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In the docuseries, Walter maintained that Corrado was not a bystander and that he came out with the crew that chased his family. 

What was Walter Triplett Jr. charged with and where is he now?

According to I Am a Killer, the police found insufficient evidence to charge Walter with murder and instead charged him with felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter. The jury failed to reach a decision on involuntary manslaughter but found him guilty of felonious assault. Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold handed down the maximum sentence of 18 years.

Walter appealed the conviction in 2011 based on the judge’s failure to instruct the jury properly on the legal definition of defense of others. The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and remanded the case to trial court. Walter went to trial again on Oct. 11, 2011, facing the same judge and the same charges of felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter. This time, he was found guilty of both and sentenced to the new maximum of 20 years in prison. 

The Ohio native told I Am a Killer filmmakers that he believed racism played a major part in both of his convictions. At his first trial, 11 of the 12 jury members were White. At his second, they were all White.

“When Black defendants get mostly White juries, then those juries are usually more punitive,” Walter said. “But somehow, I end up with two juries, two years apart and it’s all White. And this is in a city that’s 60% Black [Cleveland’s population is 46.8% Black, per the 2024 U.S. Census]. How does that randomly happen? It doesn’t.”

Richard Bombik, the lawyer who prosecuted the case, told filmmakers that any notion the verdict was based on race is “pure garbage.” He argued that the maximum sentence wasn’t handed down for a single punch but because Walter was a “repeat violent offender.”

According to I Am a Killer, Walter has been incarcerated for 15 years. He is currently carrying out his sentence at Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield, Ohio.

Walter said that when he thinks about the night he killed Corrado, the only thing he could have done differently was stay home.

“Once they made the choice to chase us out and attack my sister, my choice will always be the same,” he said in I Am a Killer. “It will always be to protect my family.”