David Leonard Wood Texas

Desiree Wheatley

David Leonard Wood is incarcerated in texas for the murder of Desire Wheatley. According to the El Paso Times, By numerous accounts, Desiree got into a tan-colored truck driven by David Leonard Wood. The then-29-year-old man — an ex-convict who had served time on several rape charges — is believed to have offered the young girl a ride home. That was on June 2, 1987. And it was the last time Desiree was seen alive.

According to his appeal,  David Leonard Wood was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering six young women in 1987.  His direct, state habeas and federal habeas appeals were all denied.    Shortly  before  his  execution  date  in  2009,  Wood  filed  a  subsequent  state habeas  application  arguing  thathe  is  intellectually  disabled.    The  Texas  Court  of Criminal Appeals (CCA) stayed Wood’s execution and remanded the case to the trial court  for  a  hearing  pursuant  to Atkins  v.  Virginia, 536  U.S.  304  (2002).At  the hearing, Wood presented only three lay witnesses to support his claim and no expert testimony.  The State, on the other hand, presented an expert who interviewed and extensively tested Wood and concluded that heis not intellectually disabled, as well asadditional evidence and lay testimony supporting that conclusion.  The trial courtfoundthat Wood is not intellectually disabled because he failed to show sub-average intellectual  functioning  or  adaptive  deficits  with  onset  prior  to  age  eighteen.    The CCA adopted the trial court’s findings.


You can write to David Leonard Wood  at:

David Leonard Wood     999051  
​Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, TX 77351