03 August 2025 :
July 30, 2025 - Texas. Death sentence of David Leonard Wood to be reviewed
Appeals court sends case back to trial court
The conviction of David Leonard Wood in a 1987 serial killing spree should be reexamined by the trial court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday.
The ruling stops short of ordering a new trial, but it represents a major victory for Wood, White, who has maintained his innocence and twice came within hours of execution. The ruling could assure several more years of appeals in one of El Paso’s most notorious criminal cases.
The Court of Criminal Appeals, which rarely intervenes in death penalty cases, issued its ruling per curiam, meaning there was no written explanation of legal reasons for the ruling. But four of the eight judges participating in the ruling objected to at least part of the decision, indicating that the state’s highest criminal appeals court was deeply divided.
“We are grateful that the CCA recognized the seriousness of Mr. Wood’s claims, which present a substantial amount of new evidence showing Mr. Wood’s innocence, including evidence that was withheld by the state during his trial. We are grateful to have the opportunity to keep fighting to prove Mr. Wood’s innocence,” Wood’s attorneys, Jeremy Schepers and Gregory Wiercioch, said in a statement to El Paso Matters.
Judge Bert Richardson, who has overseen the case since 2011, will now consider Wood’s claims of innocence and his allegation of improper conduct by police and prosecutors in the case. Richardson has continued to preside over the case even after being appointed to the Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014. He did not participate in Wednesday’s ruling.
Wood, now 68, had an execution date on March 13, but the Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the sentence without explanation two days before.
Wood was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1992 by a Dallas jury that found him responsible for killing 6 girls and young women in 1987 and burying their bodies in the Northeast El Paso desert. He has been on death row since, with the Court of Criminal Appeals also staying his execution in 2009 a day before it was to take place.
The 1987 disappearances of young girls in Northeast El Paso sent fear throughout the community. Wood was quickly identified as a suspect after police began finding bodies buried at what is now Painted Dunes Golf Course, but the evidence was largely circumstantial and he wasn’t indicted until 1990.
Wood had an extensive history of sex crimes and had been paroled shortly before the disappearances began.
The trial was moved to Dallas because of extensive pretrial publicity.
After the conviction and death sentence, Wood’s conviction took a meandering path through the appeals process.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office handled the appeals because Jaime Esparza, who briefly was appointed to represent Wood, was elected as El Paso district attorney in 1992, shortly after Wood’s conviction. The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from El Paso Matters.
The Court of Criminal Appeals over the years rejected Wood’s efforts for a new trial several times.
Wood filed an appeal known as a writ of habeas corpus in February. His attorneys said they had new evidence that indicated Wood was innocent, and said prosecutors used false testimony from jailhouse informants to convict Wood.
