Appeals Court Sends San Angelo Native’s Death Row Case Back to Trial Court

EL PASO, TX — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered a trial court to reexamine the case of David Leonard Wood, a San Angelo native convicted in 1992 of killing six young women in El Paso, according to El Paso Matters and The Texas Tribune.

Wood, 68, was scheduled to be executed on March 13, but the court granted a stay two days before the execution.

"The ruling stops short of ordering a new trial, but it represents a major victory for Wood, who has maintained his innocence and twice came within hours of execution," El Paso Matters stated. 

In a brief per curiam order, the court returned the case to the trial court to review eight claims Wood filed in February. Those claims include allegations of false testimony, suppressed evidence and a conflict of interest involving his former legal counsel. The court did not specify which claims should be developed.

Four of the eight judges objected to at least part of the decision. Several dissenting opinions criticized the ruling’s lack of direction, with Presiding Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals David Schenck writing that it gave “no guidance for what exactly should be developed [or] requirement of proceedings.”

“The order provides no guidance for what exactly should be developed, timeline for development, requirement of proceedings, or any other direction supporting our ultimate decision to dismiss or determine the application on the merits,” Schenck wrote in his concurring and dissenting opinion. 

Judge Dick Alcalá, a former San Angelo judge now living in El Paso, has been appointed to oversee the post-conviction appeals, according to El Paso Matters. 

Wood, known in media coverage as “The Desert Killer,” was convicted of killing six females between the ages of 14 and 24 in 1987. The victims’ bodies were found in shallow graves in the Northeast El Paso desert. Three other women connected to the case remain missing.

Wood’s attorneys, Gregory W. Wiercioch and Jeremy Schepers, said in a joint statement to El Paso Matters that they were grateful the court recognized the seriousness of the claims and allowed more time to present evidence they say was withheld during his trial.

Wood’s stay of execution in March is the only death sentence in 2025 to have been halted and the second death row inmate to receive a favorable ruling on appeal, according to The Texas Tribune.