A sad testament against
execution
by BILL TAMMEUS
www.kcstar.com
Police and prosecutors say Raymond Wood of rural Warrensburg, Mo., shot
and killed his pregnant wife, Tina, and four of their six children on
Valentine's Day of 2000.
It was a gruesome, heartbreaking crime. Tina Wood was 31. Their children
who died, Jared, Joshua, Emily and Hannah, were 10, 8, 7 and 5. Their
two wounded children who survived, Moriah and Katlin, were 3 and 18 months.'
This is what Wood said in response to questions as he left the courthouse
after his arraignment on murder charges: “My wife is innocent.”
Such a clearly bizarre remark did not surprise people who knew Ray Wood.
They knew he had lost touch with reality years earlier. He had been in
and out of mental hospitals since 1985 with one psychotic episode after
another. Wood suffers from chronic and severe mental illness. Experts
have testified in court that he has “schizo-affective disorder with
bipolar type.” This is not a case of temporary insanity made up
to escape punishment. This is about a man with a diseased mind who allegedly
went ballistic.
Wood has been a patient at a state mental hospital in Fulton, Mo., for
more than three years now. His trial has been delayed while he undergoes
treatment.
Prosecutors must pursue justice. If Wood really killed most of his family
and if he was and is sane, he should pay the price. In Missouri, that
can mean execution, though I believe the death penalty is wrong in all
cases.
But seeking to execute a man whose mind is so diseased he is often incoherent
and unstable defies reasonableness, compassion and the wise use of public
resources. Wood's sister, Jennifer Simmons, a Kansas City lawyer, puts
it this way: “Where is the justice in seeking the death penalty
and pursuing a trial against a citizen who has, at best, only been mentally
competent … intermittently?”
And yet Johnson County, Missouri, Prosecutor Mary Ann Young continues
to seek the death penalty against Wood. I've asked her why, but she hasn't
responded. Wood's court-appointed public defender, Cynthia Short, calls
Young's decision a “great mystery.”
Putting Wood on death row, if it ever happens, would not be the first
miscarriage of justice involving prisoners with mental problems. Many
states have executed people with mental illness, retardation or other
kinds of mental or emotional impairment. It's an outrage.
Wood's sad case is one more reason to abolish the death penalty. Capital
punishment is a costly, barbaric approach to justice even for convicted
killers with full mental capacity. For Wood, whose mental confusions include
strange religious visions, the death penalty would be the least appropriate
way to respond to the violent deaths of his wife and children. It would
be vengeance, not justice.
What has happened since the murder of Wood's wife and children has brought
both disrepute and honor to our criminal justice system. One example of
disrepute is action that led a judge in August to rule that Wood was the
victim of “coercive government misconduct.” But by protecting
Wood's rights, the public defenders and that judge, Jacqueline Cook of
the Johnson County Circuit Court, have been a credit to the legal system.
What constituted that “government misconduct”?
Shortly after the murders, Wood gave a statement to an out-of-uniform
law enforcement officer who was also a minister at the church Wood and
his family had attended for 15 years. The judge ruled that Wood's mental
illness meant he was unable to understand the implications of being interviewed
— without an attorney present — by a law officer he considered
his religious leader.
The sheriff's officer who took Wood's statement since has left law enforcement
and has said he's sure that at the time Wood gave him information about
what happened “I don't think he saw me as anything else except his
friend and minister.”
So Judge Cook quite properly ruled that prosecutors cannot use Wood's
statement.
What should happen in this distressing case? The prosecutor should accept
an offer from the defense to let Wood plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
That would make Wood a ward of the state and allow county officials to
maintain a say over Wood and where he's housed. It also would give the
remaining shooting victims a continued voice in the case.
Beyond that, we should abolish the death penalty so we never again threaten
an insane person with execution.
To reach Bill Tammeus, a member of The Star's Editorial Board,
call (816) 234-4437 or send e-mail to tammeus@kcstar.com.
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Warrensburg
tragedy leaves town in shock
By TANYANIKA SAMUELS and LYNN FRANEY -
The Kansas City Star
Date: 02/15/00 22:15
WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- As Maj. Randy Vick drove down a rural highway Monday
morning, the words of the 911 dispatcher echoed in his head: A family
had been shot at 75 Southeast 501 Road.
It hit him: He knew this family, the Woods, from church.
Pulling his Johnson County sheriff's car onto the gravel driveway, Vick
saw Raymond Wood standing calmly, his parents nearby.
Vick ordered his friend onto the ground, and a deputy handcuffed him.
Before the day ended, Raymond Wood would be charged in the deaths of his
wife and four of their children. He made his first court appearance Tuesday.
Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Wood said he was just "starting to
understand what happened."
Twenty-four hours earlier, it was becoming all too clear to Vick exactly
what had happened.
He saw Jared, 10, lying face down just outside the Woods' below-ground
home. Joshua, 8, lay on a nearby hill.
Inside, Vick found the baby, 1-year-old Catlin, toddling around in bloodied
clothes. On the floor lay her sisters, Emily, 7, and Moriah, 3.
Back outside the home, Vick saw their 31-year-old mother, Tina Wood,
inside the family van, which had crashed into an embankment.
Raymond Wood's father, Gerald, told Vick that 5-year-old Hannah was missing.
Vick went back into the house, where he found her curled up underneath
a bed, lying on a blanket.
He felt for a pulse.
There was none.
"It was horrible," Vick said, "as horribly shocking as
anything could be."
Deputies took Raymond Wood to the Johnson County Jail. He later was charged
with killing Tina Wood and four of their children: Jared, Joshua, Emily
and Hannah. He also was charged with assaulting the two other children,
who survived.
Wood, 36, was formally charged Tuesday morning with five counts of first-degree
murder, two counts of first-degree assault and seven counts of armed criminal
action. A public defender was appointed for him.
He was subdued, answering just "Yes" or "No" to most
questions from Associate Circuit Judge Stephen Angle. He was taken to
the courtroom in a black-and-white striped jumpsuit, orange slippers,
a bulletproof vest and shackles.
Wood will return to court this afternoon, when his attorney will be present.
"My wife is innocent," Wood said as he left the courthouse
Tuesday.
Outside the courtroom, he also told reporters: "My children are
innocent and beautiful."
He is being held in the Johnson County Jail on $2 million bond. Authorities
said Wood, who went through bouts of crying Tuesday, was being watched
closely because authorities feared he might attempt suicide.
The two surviving children were still being cared for late Tuesday at
Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Moriah was in critical condition,
and Catlin was in fair condition, a hospital spokesman said.
The two children were placed in the custody of the Missouri Division
of Family Services. A division official said the children would likely
live with relatives or a foster family after leaving the hospital.
The family's home is in unincorporated Johnson County, about four miles
east of Warrensburg. There, they lived just yards away from Wood's parents,
Gerald and Carol.
The children's maternal grandparents live in Alaska, where Tina and Raymond
Wood both grew up, relatives said.
The Woods had lived outside of Warrensburg for about 12 years, Vick said.
He said he saw the Wood family every Sunday at a Restoration church in
the area.
Restoration churches are an offshoot of the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints. When the RLDS church began ordaining women,
some church members broke off to start their own congregations, called
Restoration, church officials said.
The Woods spent much of the week at their new house, an "earth contact"
home they completed last year. Vick said Raymond Wood didn't want to live
in a traditional house because he was afraid of tornadoes.
Raymond Wood worked with his father in a chimney repair business, and
Tina Wood home-schooled the four older children.
"Tina was a wonderful mother, very talented," Vick said. "She
taught them everything, piano, singing."
Tina Egan Wood, who graduated from Lathrop High School in Fairbanks,
Alaska, also taught piano to neighborhood children.
Carol Wood did not want to talk about the killings Tuesday afternoon.
"We can't do anything now to make it better," she said. "We
still have two grandchildren, and we're going to concentrate on them."
The Star's Donald Bradley and The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
To reach Tanyanika Samuels, call (816) 234-7813 or send e-mail to tsamuels@kcstar.com
To reach Lynn Franey, call (816) 234-4927 or send e-mail to lfraney@kcstar.com
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Relatives, friends struggle to understand
deaths in family
By LYNN FRANEY and TANYANIKA SAMUELS
-
The Kansas City Star
Date: 02/16/00 22:44
WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- People who knew
Raymond Wood saw him as a kind, gentle man devoted to his family and his
faith in God.
But longtime family friends said Wood, while a good
person, struggled with schizophrenia and suffered delusions that made
him lose touch with reality.
They said that is the only way to explain the violent
outburst Wood stands accused of -- shooting to death his wife, Tina Wood,
and four of his children on Valentine's Day.
Sheriff's deputies found Tina Wood and the children
about 8:30 a.m. Monday, their bodies scattered about the Woods' homestead
four miles east of Warrensburg. All had been shot with a rifle.
Raymond Wood, 36, also is charged with shooting his
two other children, Moriah, 3, and Katlin, 1.
Wood is due back in Associate Circuit Court on March
29 for review of his case and April 12 for a preliminary hearing.
Moriah was in critical condition and Katlin in fair
condition Wednesday night at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
A fund has been set up at First Community Bank in Warrensburg
to help the family with the girls' medical expenses. Donations can be
sent to 1110 S. Mitchell St., Warrensburg, MO 64093.
Tina Wood's parents, Michael and Cheryl Egan of Fairbanks,
Alaska, flew into Kansas City on Wednesday and visited Moriah and Katlin.
A public viewing is planned for 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at
Sweeney-Phillips & Holdren Funeral Home. A funeral is planned for
2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints on Mitchell Street in Warrensburg.
Sharon Warrick, who lives in Anchorage, had known Raymond
Wood since he was 8 years old. She remembered him as a quiet young man
who worked hard, played in the school band and was active with the swim
team.
Growing up in Anchorage, where his father was in the
National Guard, Wood lived a life centered on the RLDS church. Later,
his family was part of a breakaway church movement called Restoration.
The sect formed in the 1980s after the RLDS began ordaining women, said
Warrick's father, Lynn Langfield.
Langfield, of Anchorage, is a longtime friend of Raymond
Wood's parents, Gerald and Carol Wood.
Langfield said he worried that Wood and his family were
becoming too secluded, building an underground home to be safe in case
of a calamity in Missouri, refusing to see a doctor and teaching the children
at home.
"Tina and Raymond loved each other. They were good
people," he said. "None of those people ever thought it could
happen. My wife and I had a lot of concern about it, though. She was terrified
that one day this would happen."
Warrick said Raymond Wood "was the nicest guy.
He was really sweet. He was shy, but when you talked to him he would talk
very calmly."
Warrick said Wood worked at a bakery in Anchorage after
graduating from high school.
In 1985, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Raymond
E. Wood broke into a home and forced motorists off a road as he fled.
When police arrested him, he claimed to be God. He was committed to the
Alaska Psychiatric Institute.
Warrick and Langfield visited Wood during his three-month
stay there.
"They had him on medication, and he wasn't really
lucid," Warrick recalled. "He was talking as if he were a third
party. He basically told me that he talked to God and he was God and he
believed he was invisible."
"He was despondent," she said. "He thought
everybody was against him and that everybody would hate him because of
what he'd done."
Warrick assured Wood that his friends wouldn't turn
against him. She said they understood he had a mental illness and just
needed to see a doctor and take medication.
She said Monday's violence shocked her. "I feel
awful for those poor children and for Ray's parents. Ray's parents are
the most loving people you could ever meet. They're always there for you."
People in Warrensburg said the same thing about Raymond
Wood -- that he was a good man.
Neighbor Doug Stanke recalled Wood driving to Odessa
over several days to help a sick friend. And once when Stanke was out
of town, Wood stopped by his farm to help extract one of his cows from
the mud.
Joshua and Jared also would come to Stanke's farm to
help pull weeds and earn a little pocket money. He remembered the two
boys as "very smart."
"They could quote Scripture right out of the Bible,"
Stanke said.
"If you'd see Ray and he wasn't working, he would
always have that baby in his arms," Stanke said. "He loved his
family as much as anybody. It's just not explainable, what happened."
Stanke struggled to reconcile the loving Raymond Wood
he saw and the man now accused of murdering his family.
"You just don't go around hurting the people you
love," Stanke said. "So when that happens, it's really hard
for us to understand. It's one of those things where we're all now wondering
`Why?' "
Eight-year-old Brett Sanderson, a neighbor, was friends
with the Wood children. He remembered them having "quiet time"
every night when they played games or read Scripture.
When he slept over once, the children all slept together
in one cavernous room, shaped like a cylindrical tunnel dug out of the
side of a hill.
Tina Egan grew up in Fairbanks, where she played the
piano and softball, babysat, and delivered the local newspaper, the Fairbanks
News-Miner reported.
Tina and Ray were married in 1987, and later moved to
Missouri.
Cheryl Egan told the Fairbanks News-Miner that Tina
was dedicated to her family, baking their bread, home-schooling the children
and milking the goats for one child who was allergic to cow's milk.
Cheryl Egan said that if her son-in-law did kill her
daughter and grandchildren "he didn't mean to do it. He was ill."
Warrick said while she accepted Wood's mental problems,
she doesn't want people to vilify her friend.
"My biggest concern was that, `Oh my gosh, they're
going to make Raymond out to be some kind of monster.' He was not that
way at all. I sincerely believe he had a mental problem that may have
been overlooked in Missouri," she said. "He loved Tina and he
loved those kids. That was his life."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
To reach Lynn Franey, call (816) 234-4927, or send e-mail
to lfraney@kcstar.com
To reach Tanyanika Samuels, call (816) 234-7813, or
send e-mail to tsamuels@kcstar.com
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This article © 2003 The Kansas City Star
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