Within the late Nineteen Eighties, the our bodies of six lacking ladies and younger girls have been discovered buried in shallow graves within the desert of El Paso, Texas. Many of the our bodies have been too decomposed to find out a explanation for demise, however there have been indicators that among the victims had been sexually assaulted. Because the demise rely rose, the El Paso Police Division confronted rising strain to search out and arrest the so-called “Desert Killer.”
“There are girls being killed out there. The public wants to know what we are doing,” the deputy chief of police advised the El Paso Herald-Put up in November 1987. “The department is feeling an impact never felt before because of the notoriety of the case, the serial killer aspect.”
It wasn’t lengthy till the police zeroed in on David Wooden, a person with a historical past of sexual assault convictions. The proof in opposition to Wooden was purely circumstantial, the state would later admit. Prosecutors centered their case round testimony from jailhouse informants who had incentives to lie, and on acrylic fibers from a vacuum cleaner bag in Wooden’s house that have been just like fibers discovered on one of many sufferer’s our bodies.
Regardless of the inconclusiveness of the proof, in 1992, Wooden was convicted of capital homicide and sentenced to demise.
Wooden has steadfastly maintained his innocence. “I’ve been trying for 30 years to tell people I didn’t do this,” he not too long ago advised The Texas Observer.
For many years, Wooden has been unable to get aid in courtroom — till now, simply two days earlier than he was to die by deadly injection within the Texas demise chamber. Earlier this month, Wooden’s longtime lawyer filed an almost 400-page petition laying out the case for his innocence and asking a choose to halt the execution.
On Tuesday, the Texas Courtroom of Prison Appeals granted Wooden a uncommon keep of execution to permit time to evaluate a few of his claims.
A Resolution ‘To Take Him Off The Streets’
Wooden was born in 1957 in San Angelo, Texas. He failed a number of grades and finally dropped out of faculty when he was 17. He was arrested two years later for indecency with a baby. He pleaded responsible and spent two and a half years in jail. Shortly after he was launched, he pleaded responsible to raping an grownup lady and a 13-year-old lady. After about seven years in jail, he was launched on parole in January 1987, shortly earlier than police would discover the primary physique within the desert.
Two weeks after Wooden’s launch, a girl was blindfolded and sexually assaulted in El Paso. The sufferer by no means noticed her attacker, however the mom of the lady Wooden had beforehand pleaded responsible to assaulting known as Crime Stoppers and stated that the lady’s assailant matched Wooden’s “modus operandi.”
The assault sufferer spoke with the lady, contacted the police, and recognized Wooden’s voice in an audio lineup as the person who had attacked her.
In October 1987, Wooden was arrested on fees of sexually assaulting a second lady. Prosecutors introduced they supposed to introduce the assault of the primary lady as proof of a sample of conduct if the lab outcomes from the primary lady’s rape package implicated Wooden. However the rape package excluded Wooden, and prosecutors declined to lift that case on the second lady’s trial.
The second lady, who struggled with heroin dependancy and had earlier convictions associated to medicine and intercourse work, gave inconsistent accounts about her assault, in keeping with courtroom data. Richard Jewkes, assistant district lawyer on the time, stated in a latest declaration that he felt the chances of convicting Wooden of the assault have been a “coin flip” as a result of the proof was “pretty slim.” However the district lawyer’s workplace felt strain to safe a conviction in opposition to Wooden, Jewkes wrote, as a result of “a decision was made to take him off the streets.”
Mike Graczyk/Related Press
Wooden was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in jail. Early on in his sentence, he shared a cell with a person named Randy Wells and lived just a few cells down from two males named George Corridor and James Sweeney. Wooden confided within the different three males about feeling harassed by the El Paso police, who have been making an attempt to construct their case in opposition to Wooden within the desert killings.
Sweeney, a jailhouse lawyer, agreed to assist Wooden file a civil lawsuit accusing El Paso officers of harassment and consulted with Corridor, his cellmate who labored within the legislation library. The case was finally dismissed, however within the strategy of submitting the go well with, Wooden gave Sweeney greater than 100 newspaper articles concerning the killings, in keeping with Wooden’s petition.
The 4 males have been finally break up up by transfers and releases. However in 1990, Corridor was abruptly despatched to the El Paso County jail, because the Marshall Undertaking beforehand reported. Quickly, Sweeney and Wells confirmed up, too. Sweeney was nonetheless finishing his sentence, however Wells had been launched and rearrested on a homicide cost.
Wells stated that after he realized he was going through a life sentence, he advised his lawyer he knew one thing concerning the our bodies buried within the desert, Corridor wrote in a declaration final 12 months.
In keeping with Corridor, Wells concocted a narrative about Wooden, his former cellmate, being the killer, primarily based on data he had gleaned from listening to Wooden work on his civil go well with with Sweeney. Wells additionally inspired the police to talk with Corridor and Sweeney, Corridor wrote.
Whereas the three of them sat within the El Paso jail, Wells requested if Corridor or Sweeney may give him particular details about the case, however each declined. Finally, the three of them have been positioned in a automotive with no shackles or handcuffs, opposite to typical apply. The cops gave the three males “the red carpet treatment,” Corridor advised HuffPost. They went to a hamburger joint and, as soon as on the police station, got espresso, snacks, cigarettes and cellphone entry.
“David Wood is our suspect,” the detectives advised them, in keeping with Corridor. “It’d be best if you tell us something because we can’t let this guy walk,” the detectives stated, mentioning there was reward cash out there.
In keeping with Corridor, the detectives handed the boys the case information concerning the murders and requested if Wooden had ever stated something concerning the killings. Wells and Sweeney every stated that Wooden had confessed to the killings described within the information, Corridor stated.
“They’re just fabricating everything,” Corridor advised HuffPost. “I was really upset.”
The lead detective from Wooden’s case, who has since retired, advised The Marshall Undertaking that the thought anybody gave the informants case information to evaluate was “preposterous” and “insane.”
When Corridor declined to corroborate their concept of the case, the detectives advised him, “We can help you, if you can help us,” Corridor wrote, including that they stated they could be capable to “do something” about his parole.
“I said I wasn’t going to lie about David Wood,” Corridor wrote.
Corridor was finally returned to jail. Months later, he was authorised for parole, however shortly earlier than he anticipated to go residence, somebody submitted a letter to the parole board protesting his launch, and he was required to serve the ultimate years of his sentence. He suspects it was retaliation for refusing to implicate Wooden.
In March 1991, Corridor wrote a letter to Assistant District Legal professional Debra Morgan stating he wouldn’t testify for the state in opposition to Wooden. “If the State subpoenas me for the trial, I will have no choice but to be a witness for the defense!” Corridor wrote in neat cursive in a letter affixed as an exhibit to Wooden’s latest petition.
Wells and Sweeney testified at trial that Wooden had confessed to the killings and described how he would lure girls into his truck by providing them medicine. A few of their testimony was inconsistent with the information of the case. For instance, Wells testified that Wooden had stated he all the time used his pickup truck through the murders — however his truck was broken and sat in an auto salvage yard for a couple of month through the time that three of the victims disappeared.
Wells’ homicide cost was dismissed after he testified in opposition to Wooden. Sweeney sought $25,000 in reward cash and finally acquired $13,000 after suing the town. Each males have since died.
The one piece of forensic proof the state offered at trial have been orange acrylic fibers discovered on and close to the physique of one of many victims. After Wooden moved out of his house, police obtained a vacuum cleaner bag from the storage and located related fibers inside. A chemist with the Texas Division of Public Security testified that the fibers from the crime scene “matched” these from the bag, citing their measurement, form, coloration, polymer composition and dye composition.
Wooden’s post-conviction authorized group later employed hint proof knowledgeable Christopher Palenik, who wrote in a report that the testimony at trial describing a “match” was “problematic and misleading.”
Though Wooden was accused of killing six girls and ladies — Karen Baker, Rosa Maria Casio, Ivy Williams, Desiree Wheatley, Angelica Frausto, and Daybreak Smith — the jury directions solely required members to search out that Wooden had killed Williams and a number of of the opposite 5 victims. He was convicted and sentenced to demise in 1992.
‘Every Person’s Gotta Meet Their Maker’
Since then, Wooden has maintained his innocence and fought his case in courtroom. In 2010, at his request, a courtroom ordered DNA testing on three gadgets that had been examined earlier than his trial however got here again inconclusive. Testing of a bloodstain on a bit of clothes worn by one of many victims contained a partial male DNA profile that excluded Wooden because the contributor. Wooden requested testing of greater than 100 further items of proof and for the state to research another suspect, however the state efficiently fought additional testing.
Corridor was launched from jail in 1994 and went on to serve 30 years on parole. He believes within the demise penalty, however he additionally thinks Wooden was unfairly convicted. He adopted Wooden’s case over time, and in 2009, when Texas first set Wooden’s execution date, Corridor got here near calling Wooden’s authorized group and sharing what he knew about Wells and Sweeney.
However he believed that if he spoke up whereas nonetheless on parole, he would find yourself again in jail.
Final 12 months, when Corridor was lastly “off paper,” he tracked down Wooden’s lawyer and left a voicemail. He stated he had details about fabricated testimony and invited Wooden’s attorneys to return go to him to debate. In October, Corridor wrote an in depth seven-page declaration, describing why he believed Wells’ and Sweeney’s testimony was false.
“Every person’s gotta meet their maker, and I don’t wanna meet mine thinking I should’ve said something,” Corridor stated in a cellphone interview.
“That’s no different than me killing David Wood.”
