Execution of so-called ‘Desert Killer’ halted by court docket, granting final minute keep earlier than scheduled loss of life
David Leonard Wood has been on death row in Texas for nearly four decades after being convicted of killing six women and girls in 1987 – a court has now stayed his execution
A Texas appeals court has slammed the brakes on the execution on the so-called Desert Killer, just two days before he was set to face the needle.
David Leonard Wood, who has been proclaiming his innocence in the 1987 slayings of six women and girls in El Paso, got a lifeline from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals with a stay “until further order of this court”.
In 1987, Wood was found guilty of the gruesome murders of six females in the chilling case known as the Desert Killer saga. The victims’ were 14 year old Dawn Marie Smith, 15 year old Desiree Wheatley, 17 year old Angelica Frausto, 20 year old Karen Baker, 23 year old Ivy Susanna Williams, and 24 year old Rosa Maria Casio.
Their remains were uncovered in shallow desert graves near El Paso, each body at various stages of decay. Although authorities could only confirm that one victim had been strangled, the others’ fates remained shrouded in mystery.
The killer was also suspected of claiming three more lives – those of 12 year old Melissa Alaniz, 14 year old Marjorie Knox, and 19 year old Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes – however, their bodies have never been recovered.
Wood has been on death row for nearly four decades and vented his frustration to USA TODAY in a recent interview. He said: “I’m accused of killing six people when an entire police force couldn’t find a single shred of evidence of anything. How can I not be angry at the corruption that put me here? How can you let people just dump cases on you and not be angry?”
Yet, despite conviction, Dave Wood’s connection to these horrendous crimes hangs on circumstantial clues – no DNA evidence has established his involvement, reports the Mirror US.
During the trial, El Paso Assistant District Attorney Karen Shook stressed to the jury that everything about this case pointed squarely at David Wood.
She pronounced: “It’s clear that the signature aspect of these murders was the shallow graves in this dark, isolated desert area.
“It became the private graveyard of the defendant, David Wood.”
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