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Convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood loses more appeals [1]
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Date: 2025-03-10
State and federal courts have turned down appeals from convicted El Paso serial killer David Leonard Wood in recent days, narrowing his chances of blocking his execution scheduled for Thursday.
David Leonard Wood in a 2025 prison mugshot
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected Wood’s appeal that was tied to a request for DNA tests on evidence recovered from the bodies of six girls and young women whose bodies were found in shallow graves in the Northeast El Paso desert in 1987 and 1988.
A three-judge panel of the appellate court ruled unanimously that a federal judge was correct in dismissing Wood’s appeal last month. Prosecutors have said Wood’s lawyers have stretched out requests for DNA testing over the years merely as a means of delaying his execution, an allegation his lawyer Gregory Wiercioch has denied. He said further tests are warranted because a test performed on a blood sample from the dress worn by one of the victims excluded Wood as a source of the blood.
And on Monday afternoon, 171st District Court Judge Bonnie Rangel of El Paso denied an attempt to use the state court to block the execution date. She didn’t give a reason for her ruling, but the Texas Attorney General’s Office had argued earlier Monday that only the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could decide whether to block the execution at this point.
David Leonard Wood was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of six girls and young women. Top row, from left: Desiree Wheatley, 15; Karen Baker, 20; and Angelica Frausto, 17. Bottom from left: Dawn Marie Smith, 14; Rosa Maria Casio, 24; Ivy Susana Williams, 23. (Photos courtesy El Paso Times)
Wood’s attorneys filed the state appeal on Feb. 24 with the 171st District Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Rangel’s ruling Monday leaves the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals – which has repeatedly ruled against Wood’s appeals over the last 15 years – as perhaps his last chance to stave off execution.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the state in Wood’s appeal, hasn’t yet filed its arguments with the Court of Criminal Appeals. But in a filing with the 171st District Court on Thursday said it “is preparing a response” and will file it with the Court of Criminal Appeals. No state response had been posted on the Court of Criminal Appeals website as of Monday afternoon.
The Attorney General’s Office has been handling Wood’s appeals since 1993 because Jaime Esparza, then the newly elected district attorney in El Paso, had briefly represented Wood. Esparza retired in 2020.
READ MORE: After almost 4 decades, El Paso mom prepares to watch daughter’s killer die
Wood’s defense lawyers have a second federal appeal pending with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which seeks permission to file a new writ of habeas corpus that could block the execution.
The remaining state and federal appeals raise similar issues, saying Wood has new evidence of his innocence, and that he received ineffective counsel in his trial. The Attorney General’s Office has said in court filings that the evidence either wasn’t new or could have been raised by Wood years ago.
The U.S. Supreme Court – which ruled against another Wood appeal late last month – l likely will be asked at least once more to stop Wood’s execution.
Wood, who had been previously imprisoned on sexual assault charges, was indicted on a capital murder charge in 1990 and convicted and sentenced to death in 1992 by a jury in Dallas, where the trial had been moved because of extensive pretrial publicity in El Paso.
In finding him guilty of capital murder, the jury found that he had killed Ivy Susan Williams, 23, and at least one of the other five girls or young women found in shallow graves – Desiree Wheatley, 15; Karen Baker, 20; Angelica Frausto, 17; Dawn Marie Smith, 14; and Rosa Maria Casio, 24.
VIDEO: Hear from Marcia Fulton, mother of Desiree Wheatley
The disappearances of nine young women over a few months in Northeast El Paso, and the subsequent discovery of six bodies, sparked terror for months. It was the deadliest mass killing in El Paso until the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at a Walmart in which 23 people were killed and 22 wounded.
Wood has been on death row for more than 32 years. No Texas inmate has ever served longer on death row prior to execution. At 67 years and 8 months, he would be the third oldest person ever put to death by the state of Texas, according to the Texas prison system.
His execution is currently scheduled for just after 6 p.m. Central time on Thursday. In Texas, capital punishment is carried out using an injection of the drug pentobarbital.
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https://elpasomatters.org/2025/03/10/david-leonard-wood-northeast-el-paso-desert-deaths-appeals/
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