Killing suspect shot dead (Commits Suicide with .45 after SWAT Team Fires 31 Rounds)

Corpus Christi Caller Times ^ | February 13, 2003 | Mike Baird and Jaime Powell

[Paleo Conservative]

Killing suspect shot dead

Boy, 15, is suspected accomplice to ex-convict

By Mike Baird and Jaime Powell Caller-Times
February 13, 2003

Corpus Christi police have a dead gunman and the answers they needed to solve four killings.

Now, the urgent question for them, the FBI and other law enforcement authorities between here and New York City is: How many more dead victims there might be.

Police know that the gunman, a 34-year-old ex-convict named Donald Wilcox, met a 15-year-old boy on a bus trip from New York City. The boy, a suspected accomplice, may face trial as an adult.

But they don't know what route Wilcox and the boy took to Corpus Christi, where local residents Weldon and Charlotte Parker and Louis Mokry, and Oklahoma resident Luther Butler were shot dead within a week. Nor did police know late Wednesday if anyone else died along the way.

Timeline

• Feb. 11, 1:01 p.m.: The bodies of Weldon and Charlotte Parker are located in the brush off Carbon Plant Road, shot to death.

• Feb. 11, about 9:30 p.m.: Police were informed that ballistic tests link the Parker and Louis Mokry shootings.

• Feb. 11, about 11:11 p.m.: A 15-year-old white male is taken into custody in reference to the Parker homicides. He was subsequently booked into the Nueces County Juvenile Justice Center for capital murder.

• Feb. 12, about midnight.: Information was received as to the location of the adult male suspect at the Padre Motel, 9401 S. Padre Island Drive, resulting in surveillance being established.

• Feb. 12, about 2:12 a.m.: The police department SWAT officers began the process of serving the arrest warrant when the adult male suspect exited room 154 at the Padre Motel armed with a semi-automatic handgun.

• While conducting the follow-up investigation surrounding this incident, fresh blood was discovered in the front seat of a vehicle with out-of-state license plates. Upon checking the trunk of the vehicle, the body of an 87-year-old white male was discovered shot to death.

• The semi-automatic handgun discovered at the scene used by the adult male suspect may possibly be the same weapon used to kill the 87-year-old male, but ballistic tests have not confirmed this at this time.
  

SWAT members shoot

At 2:12 a.m. Wednesday, four police SWAT team members shot Wilcox outside the room he had rented at the Padre Motel in Flour Bluff. As Wilcox fell to the ground, police said, it appeared to them that he shot himself in the face with a .45-caliber pistol.

Police aren't sure which shots killed Wilcox. An autopsy will determine which bullets resulted in his death.

The same caliber gun was used to kill the Parkers and Mokry, police said. They didn't know Wednesday if the same caliber had been used to shoot Butler.

A .45-caliber pistol was stolen from the Parkers' residence in a burglary, police said, but they didn't know if the gun in Wilcox's hand as he died belonged to the Parkers.

Police described the slayings as being apparently robbery-motivated, with older people as the targets. Butler was 87, Weldon Parker was 79, Charlotte Parker was 77 and Mokry was 61.

The steps police took

Police followed these chronological steps to the Padre Motel:

• They found Mokry, 61, at 2:30 p.m. Monday in his home, in the 6800 block of South Staples Street, where he lived alone. Co-workers called his ex-wife when he didn't show up for work, and she contacted the police. They initially didn't rule out suicide, but found it odd that they couldn't find a gun.

• Police found the bodies of the Parkers about 1 p.m. Tuesday in a remote brushy field on the outskirts of Corpus Christi, in the 3800 block of Carbon Plant Road, after the couple had been reported missing Saturday. Asked what led them to that spot, police have maintained that they were seeking out remote places where killers might hide victims. The Parkers' car was found Thursday, but no connection was made to their disappearance until Saturday, police said.

• An anonymous phone tip and evidence that police would not disclose led them to the teenager Tuesday night. They found him at 11:11 p.m. at a spot under the Harbor Bridge where homeless people congregate, Police Chief Pete Alvarez said. They had the spot under surveillance for less than an hour, he said.

• After taking a statement from the boy, police obtained an arrest warrant for Wilcox from 94th District Judge Jack Hunter at 1:40 a.m. Wednesday. The charge was capital murder, in the Parker slayings, and the bond was $1 million.

• Their next stop was the Padre Motel, where four police SWAT team members shot Wilcox outside the room he had rented. The discovery of Butler was a surprise, police said. They found him in the trunk of his white Ford Taurus at the motel, near where Wilcox fell dead. The driver's-side window was broken and what appeared to be blood was on the console, police said.

  Certify teen as adult

  Police believe the teenage boy and Wilcox arrived in Corpus Christi in mid-January. District Attorney Carlos Valdez said he will seek to certify the teenager as an adult.

  Valdez said he would pursue capital murder charges but would not be able to pursue the death penalty because the boy's age prohibits it.

  The boy will remain in the county's juvenile detention center for at least two weeks. That decision was made in a closed-door judicial hearing Wednesday.

  David Langenfeld, the boy's attorney, said his client moved here recently with his father, who has not been located.

  
  FROM THE ARREST AFFIDAVIT

• On or about the 5th of February, 2003, Donald Carhart Wilcox acting together with (name withheld) did knowingly and intentionally commit the offense of capital murder, when they shot and killed victims Weldon Parker and his wife Charlotte in the 3900 block of Carbon Plant Rd. in Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas. The two victims were shot after the suspects committed a burglary of the victims' home.

• The suspects also stole the victims' car after killing them.

• The suspects' fingerprints were found inside the victims' car on a package of cigarettes . . .

• I (name withheld) (believe) he and Donald Carhart Wilcox committed the burglary and stole the victims' car but that Donald Carhart Wilcox shot both victims in the 3900 block of Carbon Plant Rd.
  

  Released last month

  Langenfeld and the boy talked for a bit on Wednesday, discussing sports and video games.

  "He's scared," Langenfeld said. "He's not a hardened criminal who's been through the system many times. He's new to the system."

  Wilcox was released last month from a Pennsylvania prison, where he served four years for corruption of a minor.

  Police said the boy was from Louisiana, but Langenfeld said the boy lived in New York City and traveled here with his father. The boy's mother, who also has not been located, is believed to reside in New York City.

  At Langenfeld's request, Visiting Judge Robert F. Barnes closed Wednesday's detention hearing to the public.

  According to the state's juvenile justice code, such hearings are open to the public unless the court can show good cause as to why the hearing should be closed. Through a court official, Barnes said only that he closed the hearing at Langenfeld's request. He would not elaborate.

  Alvarez said he asked the FBI to contact other police agencies along the possible bus route.

  'Unsolved murders'

  FBI spokesman Bob Doguim said the FBI had limited involvement last night at the motel, but will play a greater role in the continuing investigation. The agency will help Corpus Christi police figure out a timeline for Wilcox's actions and whether there are additional victims.

  "Where we will end up is providing additional assistance in trying to work this guy backward, find out where he has been, where he has lived," Doguim said.

  "We will look at unsolved murders in those areas. We will track backward, where he came from, where he came through and any unsolved murders when he may have been there. We will start doing that right away.

  "Most likely there will be unsolved murders in areas he might have come through," Dogium said. "That does not mean he is responsible for them."

  Valdez referred to Wilcox as a serial killer. But Doguim said it's important not to label Wilcox a serial killer versus a killer on a robbery spree until more is known.

  Links to related stories:

  Suspect wouldn't drop his pistol

  Observer: Acts were not those of a serial killer

[Paleo Conservative]

I'm somewhat surprised none of the national news networks has picked up this story yet. The murderer was from Pennsylvania, travelled from New York, and killed four people in the Corpus Christi, Texas area since last week. The FBI is investigating whether there are victims in other states.

[Paleo Conservative]

Ping!

[Mo1]

Police know that the gunman, a 34-year-old ex-convict named Donald Wilcox, met a 15-year-old boy on a bus trip from New York City. The boy, a suspected accomplice, may face trial as an adult.

First I've heard of this ..

[Paleo Conservative]

First I've heard of this ..

The national news media tend to ignore stories originating in flyover country.

[coloradan]

The national news media tend to ignore stories originating in flyover country.

Unless it puts Bush or Republicans in a bad light.

[jdontom]

I haven't heard a word about this, between the war and estrada nomination I guess there's no other news.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

They initially didn't rule out suicide, but found it odd that they couldn't find a gun.

With such sharp minds it is no wonder they solved this case so quickly.

[BUSHdude2000]

That's one less client for a NYU lawyer to defend.

[MeekOneGOP]

Well the guy that just out of the Pennsylvania prison recently won't be doing any more damage, and spared us 10 years of supporting him to the needle. Too bad for the murders along the trail, though. Ouch !

But it looks like now we Texans have a lifer to support in Huntsville or somewhere because of him...

Valdez said he would pursue capital murder charges but would not be able to pursue the death penalty because the boy's age prohibits it.

[MeekOneGOP]

Unless it puts Bush or Republicans in a bad light.

Isn't that the truth !?...

[barker]

They initially didn't rule out suicide, but found it odd that they couldn't find a gun.

Strange things like this happened to 'friends' of the clintons all the time.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

LBJ and gang had a little of this going on also. A West Texas man, a Dept. of Agriculture agent who was onto the Billie Saul Estes phantom grain siloes ploy, supposedly committed suicide out in the brush by shooting himself six times with a bolt action rifle. It wasn't until years later that they decided that it may have been a homocide.

[eno_]

...committed suicide out in the brush by shooting himself six times with a bolt action rifle...

I kept telling people Bill Clinton was LBJ with 20 more IQ points. And we still have one of the slimiest LBJ leftovers heading the MPAA lobbying for Big Brother inside our PCs. Evil, evil people.