Police: Nurse's husband staged shooting to hide slaying
Posted on 05/24/2002 5:56:11 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Police: Nurse's husband staged shooting to hide slaying
Charges against Wooley dropped
05/24/2002
The husband of a McKinney nurse stood near his wife's grave Wednesday and tried to convince police he had been a target, too.
Hours later, Raymond Wingfield, who police say staged a shooting at the cemetery to deflect attention, was charged in her death.
McKinney police arrested Mr. Wingfield, a 30-year-old Allen firefighter, early Thursday. He denied a request for an interview.
McKinney resident Paul Wooley, who had been arrested in connection with the shootings, was released and had charges dropped early Thursday.
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Department officials said Mr. Wingfield gave them a statement describing the May 16 killing of Amy Wingfield, 31. Police said he also led them to a rural field where officers recovered a rifle they believe was used in the attack, in which nurse Alisa Stewart, 40, of Plano was critically injured.
The two women were shot in a parking lot as they returned after lunch to offices at North Central Medical Center in McKinney. Ms. Wingfield was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head. Ms. Stewart, who was shot in the back, was taken into surgery.
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"The motive at this time we believe was marital problems and financial," said McKinney Police Capt. Robert Dean. "That's about all we can say."
Relatives of both families could not be reached for comment. Two women stood on the porch of Mr. Wingfield's father's home with swollen, reddened eyes midday Thursday. A man who identified himself only as a pastor said forcefully that there would be no comment from any of them.
"This is a grieving," he said. Case workers with Child Protective Services are conducting an investigation to ensure the well-being of the couple's 3-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
"Our primary concern is finding a safe place for these children," CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said.
COURTESY 1997 photo of the Wingfields, with daughter Lindsey, 2. |
Mr. Wingfield provided a written statement about his involvement in the nurses' shootings, authorities said. He also led police to a rural field about 10 miles north of the shooting scene where the rifle thought to have been used in the attacks was found, they said.
"The investigation paid off," Chief Kowalski said. "We have a suspect in custody that we are confident is responsible for the shooting."
McKinney police Capt. Robert Dean said Mr. Wingfield had been a suspect since the beginning of the investigation. He said police do not believe there were any accomplices in the shooting.
Ms. Wingfield worked as a pediatric nurse and was the mother of two children, Lindsey, 7, and Zach, 3. Neighbors said the couple had just built a new home in the last few months. The couple had been married for eight years.
Mr. Wingfield is a firefighter for the Allen Fire Department. Police said Mr. Wingfield had been among several suspects from the investigation's start. But the focus intensified Wednesday night, on the eve of a lie-detector test for Mr. Wingfield. Police said he called about a shooting at the Cottage Hill Cemetery near Celina, where he was visiting his wife's grave.
Mr. Wingfield showed sheriff's deputies two bullet holes in his truck's windshield and scratches on his face.
But deputies decided his story didn't add up and that the shooting had been staged.
"He was trying to deflect the focus away from him toward some phantom shooter that doesn't exist," said McKinney Police Chief Doug Kowalski, "probably because of the polygraph that was scheduled to take place" Thursday.
Collin County Sheriff's Office Raymond Wingfield |
At the cemetery on Thursday, Ms. Wingfield's grave lay covered with a mound of withered flowers, ribbons fluttering in the wind alongside collapsed funeral sprays. A simple metal plaque temporarily marked her grave.
Less than 100 yards away, police divers searched a farm pond for evidence while Collin County sheriff's deputies sat in their cars at the cemetery's entrance.
Mr. Wingfield was being held late Thursday at the Collin County Jail. Bail was set at $300,000, officials with the sheriff's office said.
Mr. Wooley, 46, had been in custody since Saturday, when he was arrested in Amarillo after quitting his job in Allen and threatening to do "something rash." He was released from the Collin County Jail about 3:30 a.m. Thursday, officials said.
Police said Thursday that tests determined that weapons confiscated from Mr. Wooley in Amarillo on Saturday were not used in the shooting. Cellphone records also indicated that Mr. Wooley was not in McKinney when the shooting occurred, police said.
"I think most of the people I know my family and friends, people I work with knew there was no way I could've done something like this," Mr. Wooley said Thursday.
FILE 2000 / DMN Allen firefighter Raymond Wingfield, shown in 2000, was scheduled to take a lie-detector test Thursday. |
Acting Allen Fire Chief Craig Gillis said the department as a whole was shocked and keeping the couple's children in their thoughts. He said he's not sure how Allen firefighters will deal with the news.
"We had one thought that Raymond was injured [emotionally] by some unknown attacker of his wife, and it turns out he was the attacker," Chief Gillis said. "We were deceived by that. We just don't know how to react ... yet."
In Celina, where Mr. Wingfield grew up, played high school football and in recent years operated a small home-building business, residents said they were stunned.
"You think at first it's some crazy guy, then you find out it's one of your own, someone who grew up here," said Billy Herrin, a local real estate investor.
"There are just a lot of people shocked that something like this could happen in Celina," Mr. Herrin said. "In a way, it almost makes you mad."
Mr. Herrin said he had sold Mr. Wingfield lots for his home-building business and thought the company was doing fine. "He was kind of quiet. You never heard anything bad about him."
Neighbors said they never had any indication that the family was troubled.
"I didn't really know them," said next-door neighbor Matthew Goldstein, 18. "I'd see the kids playing in the yard. She would sit out front in a folding chair with the kids. He would be out there tinkering with his truck."
MATT ROURKE / DMN Collin County sheriff's divers searched for evidence Thursday in a pond by Cottage Hill Cemetery near Celina. |
Celina Fire Chief Martin Englebert said he did not know Mr. Wingfield well, but that he had served as a volunteer firefighter in Celina.
"He seemed like a great family man. He was a hard worker always busy working and building houses. I knew him as a friendly guy that always said, 'Hi.' I had several conversations with him trying to get him to come back [as a Celina volunteer firefighter]. But he was always too busy," Chief Englebert said.
The chief knew Mr. Wingfield had been arrested, but he had not been aware of the statement.
When he learned of it, he sat on a table edge at the firehouse and sighed, looking at the floor. "Golly," he said several times shaking his head. "That's terrible. It's tragic."
The chief said the fact that Mr. Wingfield was a fellow firefighter added to the shock and dismay.
But the town's attention will turn from grief, he said, to the surviving family members.
"Celina will shake it off," he said. "His dad is real well thought of. I think Celina will rally around the family."
Bob McKnight, president of First State Bank of Celina, echoed that thought.
"I think the town will help with open arms, give them support, whatever it takes," he said. "That's the kind of town Celina is."
Staff writers Curtis Howell in Celina, Ian McCann in Allen and Connie Piloto in Plano contributed to this report.
E-mail mbarco@dallasnews.com
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