Mom of murder victim to attend killer’s execution
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Desiree Wheatley would have been celebrating her 53rd birthday on Monday, Sept. 2.
Instead, Wheatley's mother is coming to terms knowing her daughter has been dead for more-than double the number of years she was alive.
"This has been 37 years in the making. So, try holding your breath for 37 seconds. I've been holding mine for 37 years," said Marcia Fulton.
Fulton's youngest daughter went missing on the last day of school, on June 2, 1987. She was last seen getting into a beige truck at the Circle K in her Northeast El Paso neighborhood.
Her body was found in a desert grave among the remains of five other young women and teen girls later that year.
"She trusted everybody, because she never had any reason not to," Fulton said.
As police searched for the perpetrator who became known as "The Desert Serial Killer," they arrested David Leonard Wood and charged him with capital murder.
Wood was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992, but he has maintained his innocence.
He was granted a stay in his 2009 execution after he claimed mental retardation, but his claim was denied by an appellate court in 2014.
Listen to the Borderland Crimes podcast episode on the case
Ten years later, the state has put his execution date back on the calendar.
Wood is scheduled to die by lethal injection on March 13, 2025.
Fulton still plans on attending the execution in Huntsville, TX.
"I didn't come this far to not go," she said. "I want people to understand that I'm not looking for revenge. I'm looking for justice. He did the crime, he needs to do the punishment."
Fulton, who is 72, has buried both her daughters and a husband. She said she had feared for many years that she would outlive Wood, too.
"I want him to see me at his execution, too. That would just completely close that book, in my mind," Fulton said. "Right now, the book's been open 37 years and counting. So, you know, that's a long time when you're waiting to see something that needs to be done. And you know it needs to be done because he'll do it again if he's let loose."
