Convicted El Paso serial killer David Leonard Wood is scheduled to be executed in March — nearly 40 years after he was accused of murdering young women and dumping their bodies in a Northeast desert.
Wood, known as the "Desert Killer," is scheduled to be executed Thursday, March 13, at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Huntsville Unit prison, court documents state. The execution will take place after 5 p.m. MST.
The 67-year-old Wood continues to claim he is innocent and is appealing his death penalty conviction.
Wood will be executed by being injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital.
He has been on Texas death row since Nov. 10, 1992, when he was sentenced to death. Wood was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of one of the girls and indicted on capital murder for five other girls whose bodies were found in a Northeast desert.
The young girls were in their teens and early 20s.
Wood's new execution date comes after 30-plus years of Wood and his attorneys filing numerous appeals. He was scheduled to be executed on Aug. 20, 2009, but it was ordered to be stayed 24 hours before he was set to die.
The appeals over the last 30 years have ranged from Wood claiming he is mentally disabled to arguments over DNA evidence, no witnesses who saw the crimes, the reliability of inmates who claimed Wood confessed to the murders and that executions are cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment.
More: Legal saga of 'Desert Killer' David Leonard Wood remains tied up in court system
All of his appeals in the Texas Eighth District Court of Appeal and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the highest criminal appeals court in Texas — have been dismissed.
Gregory W. Wiercioch, Wood's attorney, argued key evidence has not been allowed to be tested, including DNA evidence — a blood stain found on one of the victim's clothes — that "definitively excluded (Wood) as being the contributor of that bloodstain."
"Texas courts ruled that David Wood filed his DNA motion too late, even though the earlier DNA testing definitively showed that he was not the source of male DNA found in a blood stain on the clothing of one of the victims," Wiercioch told the El Paso Times. "Even though nearly 150 items remained to be tested, the court said we filed a motion too late. That's one of the issues, obviously.
"We are going to be asking the federal courts to rule that the denial of the DNA testing is unconstitutional, that the Texas courts have denied a condemned man, David Wood, the right to test over a hundred pieces of evidence to prove his innocence."
Another key argument made by Wood and his attorney is that the inmates who claimed Wood confessed to the murder in jail were either attempting to claim a cash reward for information leading to Wood's conviction or trying to get a lesser sentence on charges pending against them, Wiercioch said.
"There's no confession in this case. No confession from David Wood," Wiercioch said. "There's no witnesses. There's no biological material connecting David Wood to any of the murders. What did connect him to the murders was some of the most unreliable evidence that can be presented in court and that is the testimony of what we call jailhouse snitches."
Wiercioch is filing an appeal with the U.S. federal courts to have DNA testing done before the execution.
"We hope to have the federal courts rule that the denial of DNA testing was unconstitutional, is unconstitutional, especially in light of earlier testing that showed David Wood was excluded," Wiercioch said. "My hope is that they will stay the execution while they rule on it and declare that the Texas courts were unconstitutional in their application of the DNA testing statute in the David Wood case."
With the execution more than six months away, there is no timetable for when the federal courts could rule on the DNA testing.
The El Paso Times has filed a request with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for an interview with Wood. He has declined several interview requests in the past, including in 2017 — the 30th anniversary of the killings. However, in a 1988 interview with an El Paso Times reporter, Wood claimed he was innocent.
"I'm not going to confess to something I didn't do," Wood told the reporter in 1988.
Throughout the nearly 40-year saga, Wood has maintained he was wrongly convicted.
"He has maintained his innocence for 37 years, and it has been frustrating for him because the courts have denied him the opportunity to prove his innocence," Wiercioch said. "He feels frustrated."
As of Friday, Aug. 30, there are four other inmates scheduled to be executed in Texas this year and in 2025, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
David Wood victims
Wood, who had previously been convicted on several rape charges, was convicted in a series of killings of young girls between 1987 to 1988 in El Paso. He dumped the bodies of the girls in a Northeast El Paso desert. The bodies of three other girls connected to Wood have never been found.
More: Victims of the 1987 Desert Deaths
The youngest victims were 14 years old. Some had been stabbed, others strangled and some raped.
The victims are:
- Desiree Wheatley, 15
- Rosa Maria Casio, 24
- Ivy Susanna Williams, 23
- Karen Baker, 20
- Angelica Frausto, 17
- Dawn Marie Smith, 14.
The three missing girls are Marjorie Knox, 14; Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes, 19; and Melissa Alaniz, 14.
Serial killer David Wood convicted, sentenced to death.
Wood is a native of Tom Green County, which includes San Angelo, who later moved to El Paso. He attended Parkland High School but dropped out in the ninth grade. He later worked as an auto mechanic.
He served prison time on several rape charges in the early 1980s. He served seven years of a 20-year sentence in connection with the rape charges.
The Northeast teens and young women began disappearing soon after Wood returned to El Paso after serving his sentence.
Wood's killing spree began in 1987 after law enforcement officials found the skeletal remains of two young women in separate shallow graves. The bodies were identified as Baker and Casio.
More: Killer still on death row 30 years after murder of Desiree Wheatley, five women in El Paso
A third body found in the same desert area was Wheatley. The discovery of Smith's body followed it. A fifth body found was identified as Frausto. In 1988, Williams' body was found buried in the desert.
All of the victims, including the three girls never found, had some connection to Wood. In some cases, the girls were last seen alive with him.
In March 1988, Wood was convicted of raping a prostitute and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
In 1990, he was indicted on a serial murder charge in the six deaths. The trial was moved to Dallas after the deaths made national headlines.
A Dallas jury convicted Wood of capital murder Nov. 10, 1992, and sentenced him to death.
More: 'I'm ready, warden. Send me home': Final words of executed El Paso men on death row
Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT. El Paso Times reporter Trish Long contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'Desert Killer' David Leonard Wood to be executed nearly 40 years after murder spree
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