Opinion ID: 1607200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Angel Wilson Murder

Text: Angel Wilson was shot multiple times with a semiautomatic assault rifle while she was driving her car down 69th Street in the early morning hours of December 1, 1998. A witness saw someone in a dark older model car with tinted windows pull up beside Wilson's vehicle and heard multiple shots. A number of witnesses saw or heard the dark vehicle speeding away from the shooting. Witnesses also heard a series of multiple shots in rapid succession. Seventeen shell casings were recovered from the scene. The bullets entered the driver's side of the vehicle and struck Wilson sixteen times. Six of these wounds were fatal. The bullet wounds also caused extensive tissue damage, ripping off Wilson's left breast and part of her ankle. She was also struck by metal fragments as the bullets pierced her vehicle. She died on the scene from massive internal injuries. The medical examiner testified that Wilson's lungs were peppered with pieces of the projectiles that fragmented in her body. A home in the vicinity was also struck by bullets that pierced the front door and struck an inside wall. Wilson was not the intended victim of this shooting. Her boyfriend Anthony Fail was being sought by members of John Doe who intended to kill him. Wilson and Fail were together in Wilson's car just before the shooting when they arrived at the home of Fail's stepbrother James Harvey. Harvey testified that on the night of Wilson's murder a car occupied by John Doe members Julius Stevens, Eric Stokes, Jean Henry, and Eddie Bow [3] drove by his residence ten or eleven times. When Fail and Wilson arrived at Harvey's house, Harvey warned them about the car. Fail sent Wilson home because he feared for her safety. Fail learned the next morning that Wilson had been shot to death. At the penalty phase of trial, Detective Alphonso testified that Julius Stevens admitted that he and Eddie Harris had shot Wilson. Carlos Walker testified that Eddie Harris borrowed his Grand Marquis on the day of Wilson's murder. The car was returned by Harris and Eric Stokes the next day and they warned Walker that he should lay low with this car. Shots were fired at Walker the next time he drove his car and his toe was blown off. Various witnesses described the history between Fail and John Doe that led to these events. Fail testified that he met Smith in 1996 after Fail was released from prison. Smith had taken over Fail's drug hole on 61st Street during Fail's incarceration. Initially, Smith and Fail worked out an arrangement about the drug holeFail would receive money from the operation of the hole and was given permission to get drugs and money from the hole. However, this arrangement ended when Smith ordered John Doe workers to cut Fail off. Fail had heated arguments with both Latravis Gallashaw and Smith about being cut off. Fail responded by robbing John Doe holes and shooting at the holes. Fail and his friends were also shot at by John Doe members. Julian Mitchell, Charles Clark, Eric Mitchell, Antonio Allen, Tricia Geter, and Herbert Daniels each related the same account of a falling out between Smith and Fail over money, which resulted in Fail robbing the John Doe holes. Mitchell was given instructions to watch out for Fail and to kill him. Daniels was instructed to look for Fail and actually rode up and down the block looking for Fail on the day Wilson was killed. Mitchell was instructed by Smith and others to shoot Fail on sight. Allen heard Smith discuss the Fail problem with Julius Stevens at the Steady Mobbin' Car Wash. Geter heard Smith instruct Stevens to deal with Fail because he had been robbing his drug holes. According to Mitchell, the shooters were amused by a television report on the morning after Wilson's murder that named Fail as a suspect in her shooting. Mitchell and Fail also described a shooting that occurred outside the Foxy Lady Club at 79th Street and 17th Place in June 1998. In a purported gesture to end the dispute with Fail and his friends, Gallashaw gave Fail money to go out clubbing. Fail and his friends ended up at the Foxy Lady Club that night. While they were leaving the club, someone began shooting at them. Fail's companion Kenwan Maynard was killed. Mitchell testified that he drove a number of John Doe individuals to a night club where Fail had been spotted. These individuals had machine guns and opened fire on someone outside the club. Maynard had seven gunshot wounds from a high-velocity weapon. Police recovered multiple casings from semiautomatic assault rifles. Based on eyewitnesses to the shooting, the police put out a BOLO for a large dark four-door vehicle with three males in ski masks and armed with weapons. The State filed a Williams rule [4] notice about the Foxy Lady Club shooting. The evidence was introduced to prove that John Doe was looking for Fail and intended to shoot him.