The initial hearing in the latest round of appeals for the man convicted in a 1987 serial killing spree in Northeast El Paso lasted less than 10 minutes Monday, as the judge and attorneys wait to see if Texas’ highest criminal court will provide more direction on what it wants examined.
“I mean, the Court of Appeals really didn’t offer much guidance other than saying that we were to examine those things that (defense attorney Gregory) Wiercioch brought up in his application,” Judge Dick Alcalá, who was appointed to oversee the appeal earlier this year, said at Monday’s hearing.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the state in David Leonard Wood’s appeal of his 1992 capital murder conviction and death sentence, filed a motion with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last month asking that the court provide more guidance on what issues it wants the trial court to examine in this appeal.
“The state has filed a motion for reconsideration and a motion to stay our deadline (to respond to Wood’s appeal), our statutory deadline, asking the court to narrow the scope or give more precise guidance to this court in terms of scheduling an evidentiary hearing,” Assistant Attorney General Katie Abell said. “The defense has filed a response in opposition last week, so those motions stay pending at this moment.”
Alcalá said he wasn’t aware that the state had made such a motion and asked to be kept informed going forward.
“I’m one that gets things done as quickly as we can, efficiently as we can, but it looks like it’s really not up to me at this point, since these matters are still pending your motion for reconsideration,” the judge said.
Monday’s hearing was conducted via Zoom. Alcalá’s order setting the hearing had said Wood should be present, but Wierchioch said his presence wasn’t necessary for a status conference.
In 1987, the bodies of six young women and girls who had disappeared were discovered buried in Northeast El Paso desert land near what is now Painted Dunes Golf Course. Suspicion quickly focused on Wood, a man with a history of sex-related offenses who had recently been released on parole.
He was indicted in 1990 and his 1992 trial was moved to Dallas because of pretrial publicity in El Paso. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
From the beginning, Wood has insisted on his innocence. Over the years, he and his attorneys filed a series of appeals raising questions about the investigation and trial. They have argued that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped the defense, and that jailhouse informants provided false testimony to strengthen the case against him.
A planned execution in 2009 was halted a day before Wood was to be put to death by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. That court issued another stay two days before he was to be executed in March 2025.
On July 30, 2025, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling sending the matter back to the trial court for further review. This did not overturn Wood’s conviction or sentence, but it created an opening for his lawyers to press their claims before a new judge.
The court majority offered no explanation for its reasons for sending the appeal back to the trial court, and offered no specific issues for the trial court to examine.
The ruling highlighted deep divisions within the state’s highest criminal court. Of the eight judges who participated, four objected to parts of the decision, signaling that the case remains contentious even at the appellate level.
Judge Bert Richardson, who had overseen Wood’s appeals at the trial court level since 2011, stepped aside earlier this year and Alcalá, a former San Angelo judge who now lives in El Paso, was appointed to oversee the appeal.
The post El Paso death row inmate David Leonard Wood’s appeal in 1987 killings stalls as parties seek more guidance from appeals court appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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