A death row inmate escaped the deadly needle of the grim reaper when a higher court saved the day. What happened in this long-running legal marathon was nothing short of a miracle. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals stopped the execution of serial killer and rapist David Leonard Wood.
In an unexpected move, the swift-handed decision temporarily halted the execution that was previously set to be carried out–30 years after Wood was found guilty of a string of murders that rocked the Borderland community. As reported by KFOX-TV, the decision took place on Tuesday, March 11, merely two days before Wood’s scheduled execution.
David Leonard Wood had been sentenced to die for the 1987 deaths of six girls and young women whose bodies were buried in the Northeast El Paso desert. The 1987 murders remained unsolved for several years until authorities say Wood bragged to a cellmate that he was the so-called “Desert Killer,” the Associated Press reported in a news story. Wood insisted since day one, that he’s one-hundred percent innocent of the murders.
A former menial worker, Wood has been on death row since January 1993, more than 32 years. The longest stay on death row by an inmate executed in Texas is 31 years. Only two people older than Wood, now 67 years and eight months, have been executed by the state of Texas. His attorney, Gregory Wiercioch, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, news media outlets reported.
The unsigned order was issued per curiam by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, meaning the decision was done in agreement with a majority of the nine judges. Two dissenting judges, Judges Mary Lou Keel and Gina Parker, disagreed with the decision. Judge Bert Richardson, who has handled Wood’s appeals at the trial court level since 2011, didn’t participate in the decision.
The appeal judges outlined the issues raised in the latest appeal, but didn’t list their reasons for their ruling. “The stay will remain in place until further order of this Court,” the ruling said.
USA Today Video:Death Row inmate convicted of serial murder says he’s innocent
Only 48 Hours Left: A Ringing Bell Saved Texas Death Row Inmate
The order was issued less than 48 hours before Wood was to be executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville. It was the second time the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had stepped in to block Wood’s execution days before the grim reaper could put him to death. “I don’t know why they keep doing this. It’s like they’re playing a game,” said Marcia Fulton, a Northeast El Paso resident whose 15-year-old daughter, Desiree Wheatley, was among those killed in 1987.
Gregory Wiercioch, Wood’s lawyer, told USA TODAY last week that the state’s evidence linking him to the killings is insufficient and chastised prosecutors for not testing hardly any of the tangible evidence gathered from the scene for DNA testing.
Out of hundreds of pieces of evidence, only three items were ever tested: bloodstains on two victims’ clothing and fingernail scrapings from one victim. One of the bloodstains including a ‘fingernail scraping test’ proved inconclusive. According to fresh DNA evidence gathered by defense lawyers in 2010, the other bloodstain belonged to another man which indicate the bloodstain didn’t belong to David Wood.Despite Wood’s requests, Texas courts have denied further testing that could match evidence to the unidentified profile, Austin Chronicle wrote in a recent story about Wood case,
Texas Defender Service
Death penalty experts like Texas Defender Service’s Burke Butler point to Wood’s case as another example of the risks inherent in capital punishment, particularly in cases where key evidence has since been discredited. Butler references Ruben Gutierrez’s case as a similar one where DNA evidence could potentially prove innocence.
“Mr. Wood’s case goes to the heart of whether we, as a people in Texas and we, as a state, care about innocence and our justice system,” Butler told the Chronicle. “If we care about it, then we need to allow people the opportunity to have material from their crime scene tested, which is what Mr. Wood has been seeking all of these years.”
Indictment
Wood was indicted on a capital murder charge in 1990, three years after nine girls and young women were reported missing in and around Northeast El Paso. From September 1987 through March 1988, the remains of six of the missing girls and young women were found in shallow graves in the Northeast desert, where Painted Dunes Golf Course is now located.
The killer David Leonard Wood faced capital murder charges for the deaths of six women, whose bodies were discovered: Ivy Susana Williams, aged 23; Desiree Wheatley, aged 15; Karen Baker, aged 20; Angelica Frausto, aged 17; Dawn Marie Smith, aged 14; and Rosa Maria Casio, aged 24.
However, three other missing females were never recovered. Their names are:
- Marjorie Knox, aged 14;
- Melissa Alaniz, aged 13;
- Cheryl Lynn Vasquez Dismukes, aged 19.
As of this writing, no suspects have been charged in their disappearances.
Top: Desiree Wheatley – 15; Karen Baker – 20; Angelica Frausto – 17.
Lower: Ivy Susana Williams – 23; Rosa Maria Casio – 24; Dawn Marie Smith – 14.
Shallow Graves
Multiple shallow graves were discovered in the northeastern desert, which triggered bone-chilling fear within the El Paso community. Another event signified a harrowing surge of criminal activities in the city when 23 people, mostly of Hispanic origin, were murdered in a mass shooting during a racially motivated mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart. 22 other victims were badly injured.
The trial of Wood was relocated to Dallas in 1992 due to massive media publicity preceding the trial in El Paso. In November of the same year, a jury reached a guilty verdict for capital murder, concluding that Wood was responsible for the death of Williams and potentially other victims among the five girls in question. Following the conviction, the jury handed down a death sentence to Wood just four days later. Throughout the trial process and subsequent appeals spanning multiple decades, Wood consistently claimed he was innocent as a new born baby.
David Leonard Wood Life History
A Wikipedia story published the following details about the convicted serial killer:. David Leonard Wood was born on June 20, 1957, in San Angelo, Texas, the second of four children. During the 1960s, his father, Leo, moved the family to a luxurious neighborhood in El Paso, where he held an executive position with the El Paso Electric Company.
While the family was considered well off, their private life was troublesome, as Wood’s mother, Betty, who had started showing signs of mental illness, began to frequently argue with his father. In turn, his father would beat him with a paddle whenever he misbehaved.[1]
Around the mid-1960s, Betty Wood was committed to a psychiatric hospital for six months, where she was treated via electroconvulsive therapy.[1] While she was allowed to return home after her release, she was prescribed drugs that she later began abusing, further deteriorating her mental health. Due to the numerous problems between them, Wood’s parents paid little to no attention to their children, due to which David and his siblings were sent off to live with relatives in Chaparral, New Mexico, and even spent time in foster homes.
From an early age, Wood was described as nervous and hyperactive, so much so that he was admitted to a hospital and given medical treatment, due to which he had to repeat the first grade of school. Eventually, he lost all interest in school, and due to his failing grades and truancy, he had to repeat the third and ninth grades. By his own admission, he claimed that he began feeling sexual attraction towards girls at an early age, and even lost his virginity at age 12.
In the early 1970s, Wood began spending most of his free time outdoors, during which he developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs. In 1974, at the age of 17, he quit Parkland High School after the ninth grade and attempted to enlist in the Army, but was rejected. Because of this, Wood resorted to doing manual labor and odd jobs to make a living for a few years.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Dr. Thomas Allen diagnosed Wood with antisocial personality disorder, describing him as “self-motivated [and] manipulative” and stating that “[The fact] that [Wood] volunteered to be questioned by the police is indicative of his arrogance, narcissism, and antisocial personality.” He further stated that “[Wood’s] social and interpersonal skills are impaired by his antisocial personality disorder and aggression.”
Oxygen True Crime TV series aired a story about Wood’s crimes in an episode titled “Mark of a Killer; Deaths in the Desert.” The case was also featured on an episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn.
Previous Execution Date
The convicted killer faced a previous execution date in 2009, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution a day before the officials could put the action in motion to allow Wood’s lawyers to pursue a claim that he suffered with an intellectual disability that should have barred him from the death sentence.
Combined with the aforementioned appeals, a series of requests for DNA testing of evidence were rejected by the courts over the years. Wood’s defense lawyers were critical of the state for objecting to DNA testing, especially after one of three tested blood samples in 2010 excluded Wood as the source of the blood.
The prosecutors and the courts said the one blood sample would not have altered the jury’s decision in 1992, and further tests weren’t allowed.
Wood’s attorneys made multiple last-ditch appeals in state and federal courts in recent days to stop the execution.
Sex Crime History
According to the El Paso Times, David Wood, the convicted killer, had an extensive history of sex crimes before being charged with the 1987 killings.
- In 1976, when he was 19, he was sentenced to five years in prison for indecency with a child. A parole board released him in 1978.
- 1980, when he was 23, Wood was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping a 19-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl over an eight-day span. He had been paroled approximately six years later, in January 1987, and returned to Northeast El Paso.
In addition to the homicides, Wood was convicted during the 1987 trial for the abduction and sexual assault of a woman who managed to survive the incident. His attorneys argued that originally, the victim pointed to a different person as the perpetrator but altered her story due to coercive tactics from law enforcement. During Wood’s trial for capital murder, the victim ultimately testified against him during the punishment stage.
HoustonNewsToday Criminal Justice Reporter and Associate Editor Clarence Walker can be reached at HoustonNewsToday@yahoo.com
Editor’s Note: This case is an ongoing story: We’ll report Any Developing Updates.
