I'm on death row and will die in days. I'm not the Desert Killer and want a DNA test to prove I didn't murder six
For nearly four decades, David Leonard Wood has languished on Texas Death Row, convicted of the brutal murders of six women and girls in El Paso — despite a glaring absence of DNA evidence linking him to the crimes.
Now, time is running out. On March 13, Wood is set to die by lethal injection, becoming the seventh person executed in the U.S. this year and the third in Texas — the state that has by far carried out the most executions.
Wood's troubled past is undeniable. A rebellious youth in El Paso, he was expelled on his first day of high school and soon fell into a life of crime, frequenting biker bars and strip clubs. By 18, he was jailed for siphoning gas from a police car.
By 20, he had been convicted of multiple sexual assaults, including crimes against a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old, earning a 20-year prison sentence.
In an interview with USA TODAY, David Leonard Wood, now 67, admitted to past misconduct, attributing it to alcohol and marijuana use, while maintaining he did not rape the victims. 'I'm sorry,' he stated, adding, 'Anybody would tell you, my friends or my family, if I hadn't have been drunk or high, I wouldn't have did what I did.'
After serving just seven years, Wood was paroled in 1987 — one month before the first victim of the so-called 'Desert Killer' vanished.
In 1992, a jury found him guilty of murdering six young women and girls: Dawn Marie Smith, 14; Desiree Wheatley, 15; Angelica Frausto, 17; Karen Baker, 20; Ivy Susanna Williams, 23; and Rosa Maria Casio, 24. Police suspected he had more victims — three missing girls, ages 12, 14 and 19 — whose bodies were never found.
The remains of the known victims were discovered in shallow graves scattered across the desolate northeastern El Paso desert. Some were so decomposed that their causes of death could not be determined.
From the moment of his arrest, Wood has maintained his innocence. His conviction relied almost entirely on circumstantial evidence.
David Leonard Wood, an inmate on Texas Death Row for serial murder, says he's innocent even as his scheduled execution looms
Pictured: David Leonard Wood, 33, is led from the El Paso County Courthouse by sheriff's deputies after being arraigned in connection with the murders in the Northeast desert on July 25, 1990
No DNA. No physical proof. Just the words of two jailhouse informants who claimed he confessed and the testimony of a sex worker who alleged he raped her and started digging her grave before a sudden noise scared him off.
His attorney, Gregory Wiercioch, has fought relentlessly for additional DNA testing — tests that, so far, have only cast more doubt on the case.
'To this day, it is still mind-boggling why (the state) didn't agree to more testing,' Wiercioch told USA Today.
'I think they're afraid of what they would find. If they believe David Wood is the desert serial murderer, then why are they afraid of additional testing? We've never tested anything other than those three items out of 135, and one excluded David Wood. That's very troubling.'
His attorneys have also requested testing on more than 100 additional pieces of evidence, but the state — represented by the Texas Attorney General's Office — has opposed these requests for more than a decade.
Further clues suggests that key evidence used by the prosecution leading to Wood's conviction may have been fabricated.
Dawn Marie Smith (left), 14, and Angelica Frausto (right), 17
Ivy Susanna Williams (left), 23, and Desiree Wheatley (right), 15
Karen Baker (left), 20, and Maria Casio (right), 24
Reports that his original defense lawyers never saw reveal Texas Rangers had Wood under surveillance when two of the victims, Angelica Frausto and Rosa Maria Casio, disappeared — yet never reported seeing him with either woman.
Court records also show that at the time of Casio's disappearance, Wood's truck was in a salvage yard and his motorcycle was parked under a tarp.
Another explosive claim comes from a former cellmate of one of the informants, who alleged that the jailhouse confession — the backbone of the prosecution's case — was a lie orchestrated with the help of El Paso police.
In 1990, George Hall, a prisoner serving a 45-year sentence hundreds of miles away, was suddenly transferred to an El Paso jail, where he encountered Randy Wells and James Carl Sweeney — both men he had previously known in prison.
Wells, who was facing murder charges, falsely claimed he had been arrested for running a meth lab. He soon revealed that authorities were seeking information about 'bodies buried in the desert' and hoped to use it as leverage.
'Wells told me and Sweeney that the cops wanted David Wood "real bad",' Hall later testified, adding that Wells offered to trade information in exchange for dropped charges.
El Paso detectives allegedly showed the men Wood's photograph alongside images of the victims, telling them, 'David Wood is our suspect. It'd be best if you tell us something because we can't let this guy walk.' They even mentioned reward money.
Hall claimed that Wells and Sweeney were granted access to confidential case files. Shortly after reviewing them, the two men alleged that Wood had confessed — conveniently echoing details from the reports they had just read.
After serving just seven years, Wood was paroled in 1987 — one month before the first victim of the so-called 'Desert Killer' vanished
Jolieen Denise Gonzalez, sister of 17-year-old Angelica Frausto, a victim of the 'Desert Killer,' believes Robert Wood played a role in her sister's death, but not as the direct perpetrator.
Unlike the others, Hall refused to participate. 'I wasn't going to lie about David Wood,' he said.
Decades later, Hall disclosed that he had warned prosecutors about Wells and Sweeney's perjury, writing, 'I know Sweeney committed perjury before the grand jury and that Wells and him fabricated their stories together.'
Wells, who had faced capital murder charges, struck a deal in exchange for testifying against Wood — only to later be indicted for aggravated perjury. Sweeney, meanwhile, successfully sued for reward money.
'I've never confessed anything to anybody about anything,' Wood told USA Today.
The case against Wood was built by the El Paso Police Department's 'Northeast Desert Murders Task Force,' which gathered witnesses who placed him near some of the victims before their disappearances.
Investigators also cited fiber evidence allegedly linking him to one victim.
While police were building their case, Wood was convicted of sexually assaulting Judith Brown Kelling, a crime prosecutors argued fit the serial killer's modus operandi.
Yet court records show Kelling initially identified a different man as her attacker.
Wood's defense also presented alibi witnesses for the day of the attack, but he was convicted regardless.
Wood was ultimately indicted for the murders of Williams, Wheatley, Baker, Frausto, Casio, and Smith.
The jury was not required to agree on which specific killings Wood committed — only that he had killed Williams and at least one other victim. In 1992, they found him guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death.
'I want people to understand that I'm not looking for revenge,' said Marcia Fulton, mother of Desiree Wheatley, in a 2023 interview. 'I'm looking for justice. He did the crime, he needs to do the punishment.'
Jolieen Denise Gonzalez, sister of 17-year-old Angelica Frausto, a victim of the 'Desert Killer,' believes Robert Wood played a role in her sister's death, but not as the direct perpetrator.
Gonzalez told USA TODAY that Frausto, who sold drugs for a bar manager and police officer, was likely killed after revealing a marijuana stash house.
'I believe in my heart that he didn't do it,' Gonzalez told USA TODAY last week, adding that her sister was tough and strong, and at 5 feet, 10 inches, Wood isn't that big. 'My sister could have taken him out.'
However, she insists Wood deserves the death penalty for withholding the truth about Angelica's murder, concluding 'We don't need a person like that on this planet anyway,' she said.
Wood, however, insists the state got the wrong man.
'I'm accused of killing six people when an entire police force couldn't find a single shred of evidence of anything,' Wood said. 'How can I not be angry at the corruption that put me here? How can you let people just dump cases on you and not be angry?'
From his cell on Texas Death Row, David Leonard Wood remains defiant, pledging to fight for his life 'tooth and nail.'
'I've done everything I could to prove my innocence,' Woods told USA Today. 'I've given enough body specimens from every part of my body on multiple times to create 15 crime scenes. Believe me, there's nothing I haven't done to cooperate, to show I had nothing to do with this case.'
'So am I angry? Yes, yes, I am. But I believe in God above, and anybody leaves this Earth, if you're believing Christian, then you're going home.'
