Frustration grows as convicted 'Desert Killer" David Wood granted stay of execution

Yahoo

15-03-2025

Marcia Fulton couldn't mask her frustration last week as she discussed the stay of execution of the man convicted of killing her daughter and five other victims buried in a Northeast El Paso desert.
"I just couldn't even imagine having this (execution stayed) happen again a second time," said Fulton, the mother of 15-year-old Desiree Wheatley. "I just knew it was going to go through this time because they had all these years in between them."
David Leonard Wood, 67, known as the convicted "Desert Killer," was set to be executed Thursday, March 13, but less than 48 hours before the state of Texas was to kill him, the state's highest appeals court granted a stay of execution.
This was the second time Wood's life was saved hours before he was set to be executed. In 2009, the same appeals court granted a stay just 24 hours before his scheduled execution over an appeal claiming Wood was mentally impaired. The appeal was later denied.
Since the latest stay was granted, Fulton is forced to continue her wait for her 37-year nightmare to end. She is hoping it will not take another 15 years between execution dates.
More: 'It's been long enough': Victims' families anxious as 'Desert Killer' execution date nears
"I just don't understand how this could happen twice," Fulton said. "They keep saying they got new information. No they don't. They've got the same information they had 37 years ago."
Once again, Fulton, who has recently been struggling with serious health issues, finds her life in limbo. She made a vow to witness Wood pay for killing her daughter with his own life.
The latest information the distraught mother has received from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was at least eight appeals have been filed in the case. Texas Attorney General's Office prosecutors and defense attorneys will now have to review the appeals and file responses. They then wait for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the highest appeals court in Texas — to decide what the next steps will be.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Texas Eighth District Court of Appeals court records, as of Friday, March 14, do not show any appeals having been filed since the stay of execution.
Fulton was told it could take up to two weeks before she could get an update on the case.
The Texas Attorney General's Office and Rachel Patton, assistant attorney general prosecuting the case, did not respond to requests for comment or issue any kind of public response on behalf of the victims to the court's stay of execution.
A Democrat, Dan Morales, was the Texas attorney general when Wood's death penalty case went to trial in 1992. Wood's execution has languished in the state's court system during John Cornyn, Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton's terms as AG.
Patton has been an assistant AG since 2017.
Gregory W. Wiercioch, Wood's attorney, could not be reached for comment.
El Paso police began discovering the bodies of six women and girls in 1987. The girls had all been reported missing shortly after Wood was released from prison on a sexual assault conviction. The victims were found in shallow graves in Northeast El Paso.
The victims found were Wheatley, 15, Ivy Susanna Williams, 23, Rosa Maria Casio, 24, Karen Baker, 20, Angelica Frausto, 17, and Dawn Marie Smith, 14, were found in shallow graves in a desert area in Northeast El Paso. All of the girls were last seen with Wood.
Three other missing victims — Marjorie Knox, 14, Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes, 19, and Melissa Alaniz, 12, — connected to Wood were never found.
Wood was convicted of murder by a jury Nov. 10, 1992, in the slaying of Williams. Under the Texas Penal Code's serial-killing provision, the killings of the other five girls were added on to the conviction because Wood was found to have used 'the same scheme and course of conduct" in those cases, court documents state.
Wood has maintained his innocence for nearly 40 years, claiming state prosecutors used unreliable evidence to get the conviction and death sentence.
More: 'I pray every day for her': Remembering 'Desert Killer' David Wood's victims
Wood and his attorney have repeatedly asked the Texas Attorney General's Office to conduct DNA testing on hundreds of pieces of evidence found at the victims' grave sites. Only three pieces of DNA evidence were used during Wood's 1992 trial.
An appeals court granted the retesting on the three items in 2010. The results on two of the items were inconclusive, but a blood stain on Smith's dress revealed male DNA. The test results excluded Wood as a possible donor.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did not state in their ruling why the execution was stayed.
It took 15 years between Wood's 2009 execution stay to when he was scheduled for execution again. Fulton hopes it won't be another 15 years.
"They (Wood and his attorney) are playing a game,"Fulton said. "But I am not going anywhere. As I have said before, it is the criminal justice system, not a victims' justice system. Victims continue to be victimized."
Prominent El Paso attorney Sergio Saldivar, who has handled major murder and violent crime cases in federal and state courts throughout Texas, said death penalty appeals can take years to reach a conclusion. However, he does not believe it could take a decade for this latest round of appeals.
"It's been nearly 40 years and it appears he's at the tail end of his appeals," Saldivar said. "I don't anticipate it will take much longer on a decision. But it depends on how the justices see the issues at appeal and how complex they believe those issues are, or how meaningful they are. If it is deemed a complex issue then it could take years, but in my opinion and for what I know about this case, he's already at the tail end of it."
More: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halts execution of death row inmate David Leonard Wood
Saldivar is not connected to Wood's case. He spoke to the El Paso Times generally about public information already reported on the case and the general appeals process when it comes to similar cases.
"Cases like these are hard to try again," Saldivar said. "Time is not on anyone's side. It's been 40 years. Key witnesses have probably died. Do the witnesses still around even have a good recollection of what happened in the late 1980s? How has the evidence been handled over this period of time? Who has handled it? Is there anything even left to test for DNA? How accurate would a DNA test be on items collected four decades ago?"
Retrying the case presents dozens of legal issues, Saldivar said. All of these issues and more will come up if the case is retried.
"Those issues and a lot more will come up if the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decides to have the case retried," Saldivar said. "Again, time is not on anyone's side in this case, maybe the length of time is more helpful for the defense since they get to bring up all these issues. And these issues will need to be addressed at any retrial."
After reviewing the appeals, the justices are left with three main options — affirm the appeal, deny the appeal or remand it back to trial for a retrial.
More: Texas Death Row inmate David Wood: Timeline of convicted serial killer set for execution
"If they deny the appeals, the defendant would go back to death row and wait for an execution date to be set," Saldivar said. "The Texas Department of Criminal Justice would probably prioritize this execution given the amount of time this case has been pending. If the justices decide to uphold the appeals, they could ordered the case back to state court for retrial."
Death penalty cases deserve all the time and attention to make sure a possibly innocent person is not killed, Saldivar said.
"Of course, nobody wants to see an innocent person executed," Saldivar said. "But you have to remember peers in his community heard all the testimony presented during the trial. They saw the evidence when it was fresh, they heard from the witnesses, they got all the information presented by both defense lawyers and prosecutors. Those jurors were the best ones to judge this case and they decided he deserved death. Their verdict should be respected."
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at [e-mail] or on X/Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: David Wood's stay of execution halts 37-year-old serial murder case