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Thread: James Irven Staley III Sentenced to LWOP in 2020 TX Murder of Jason Wilder McDaniel

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    James Irven Staley III Sentenced to LWOP in 2020 TX Murder of Jason Wilder McDaniel

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    Grand Jury indicts James Staley on capital murder for the death of Wilder McDaniel
    8 Months Ago

    WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — James Staley, III, was indicted by the Wichita County Grand Jury for the capital murder of Jason Wilder McDaniel and punishment is either death or life without parole, according to a press release from the Wichita Falls District Attorney’s Office

    The Grand Jury also returned an indictment for first-degree felony murder, which has a range of punishment up to life. This is also for the murder of Jason Wilder McDaniel.

    Felony murder is a different means of committing murder; therefore, the second county permits the jury to consider both means of murder.

    On occasion, the facts of a crime may fit two different offenses under the law.

    A jury can consider both but will be instructed it can only return a conviction on one offense.

    The District Attorney’s Office will conduct a thorough review of whether to seek death. This is the process followed in every capital case. Such a review will include consideration of a defendant’s prior criminal history, mental health history, the nature of the evidence, and a recommendation by a forensic psychologist on the degree of future dangerousness, among other factors. At the conclusion of the review, the Capital Committee within the DA’s Office will make a recommendation to the District Attorney. The District Attorney will then make that decision.

    According to a Wichita County Courthouse source, the Wichita County DA’s office has not tried a death penalty case since Faryion Wardrip in 1999.

    Staley is still listed on the Okmulgee County Jail roster at the time of publication.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.tex...-mcdaniel/amp/
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    Bubba McDaniel reacts to charges against wife in son, Wilder McDaniel’s death

    By Shatanya Clarke
    WJBF News

    WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Bubba McDaniel is speaking out following charges being filed against his wife Amber McDaniel in connection to the death of their 2-year-old son Jason Wilder McDaniel.

    “She didn’t kill him, she didn’t have anything to do with killing him, can they charge her with endangerment sure go ahead,” Bubba McDaniel said.

    Amber McDaniel now faces charges of child endangerment and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of her son Wilder, who was found dead in October of 2018 in the home of her then, boyfriend, James Staley, III.

    Bubba McDaniel said he just learned Thursday of the details of text exchanges between Amber and Staley but he and Amber have had hard conversations on why she stayed with Staley, putting their son in danger.

    Detectives made a break in their investigation in April when the secret service lab was able to unlock encrypted messaging on James Staley’s phone.

    The affidavit details graphic, uncensored examples of texts exchanges between Amber and Staley which investigators said show a constant and escalating pattern of violence and hatred that Staley directed toward Wilder.

    “I don’t know if she knew how serious that was at that time,” Bubba McDaniel said.

    James: “Only the good die young. That ‘expletive’ is living forever.”

    Amber responds: “lmao stop.”

    James: “I’ll come terrorize Wilder and get the day started off right.”

    James: “If it’s me, I’ll just beat it out of him.”

    These are just a few of the text exchanges between Amber and James Staley just days leading up to Jason Wilder McDaniel’s death in October of 2018.

    Messages the arrest affidavit and Wichita Fall Police Department’s sergeant Charlie Eipper said Amber deleted and chose not to disclose until they were retrieved a few months ago because she knew they make her look bad.

    “You start to see some of the intent that is being built through these messages which are connected to the abandoning or endangering of child charges she has is because of those threats,” Eipper said.

    Amber McDaniel turned herself in early Thursday morning, on a warrant charging her with abandoning or endangering a child as well as tampering with evidence.

    She faces a maximum 20-year sentence if convicted.

    “They tried to tell us that they needed more evidence that was conclusive upon the evidence they had, they’ve got blood, they have fingernail clippings, they have all these other things and they still tried to say oh we can’t get him but yet a couple of messages are gonna do it, no you’re a liar,” Bubba McDaniel said.

    Back in June of last year both Staley and Amber were named as persons of interest in the case.

    Bubba McDaniel said that while he was unaware of these text messages, he and his wife had conversations in the past and knew she would face some consequences.

    “No matter what happens it’s constantly justice for Wilder, she knew that she would have to possibly pay some kind of price for being there, we’ve talked about this for years, we thought it’d be earlier than this to tell the truth,” Bubba McDaniel said. “If she had left him and gone, we’d be okay, we’d still have a son, but here is the thing though it’s like I said, this man was a manipulator.”

    Bubba said this is a tragedy but there is just one person he believes is to blame for his son’s death.

    “James Staley killed my son, James Staley was the one that was saying all these things, James Staley manipulated her to stay there, James Staley is the one that we are taking the light off of and it’s all him,” Bubba McDaniel said. “When you see a man talking about your son like that you just kinda have to just grit your teeth, I’ve dealt with worst, I’ve known worst, I’ve had worst happen right now I’m just kinda going through the motions.”

    But police and prosecutors believe that had Amber McDaniel acted as most mothers would to protect their children, Wilder most likely would still be alive.

    Sergeant Eipper said had she disclosed the text messages sooner it would have taken weeks or months off the investigation.

    “I think it could’ve sped up the investigation so we could’ve maybe made an arrest earlier,” Eipper said. “It certainly would’ve taken care of the tampering.”

    “It’s not about me, it’s not about Amber it’s not about anything but making James Staley pay the price,” Bubba McDaniel said.

    You can read the redacted affidavit here.

    James Staley is charged with the Capital Murder by Suffocation of Wilder.

    He has a pretrial set on his charge on August 12.

    https://www.wjbf.com/news/bubba-mcda...daniels-death/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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    No death penalty in capital murder charge against James Staley III

    By Chirs Horgen
    KAUZ Digital Media Team

    WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - Wichita County Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the capital murder case against James Staley III. Instead, they will ask a jury for a sentence of Life in Prison Without Parole.

    Staley is also facing two new charges related to the October 2018 death of 2-year-old Jason “Wilder” McDaniel.

    According to an indictment unsealed today, an Injury to a Child charge and Tampering with Physical Evidence charge have been added.

    A source from the District Attorney’s Office tells News Channel 6 that the Injury to a Child charge is from an incident that happened on August 31, 2018 between Staley and Wilder.

    The Tampering charge accuses Staley of moving Wilder’s body the day his body was found.

    Staley was booked back into the Wichita County Jail Thursday, but has since been released on bonds totaling $50,000. We are currently awaiting for documents on the new charges to be made available.

    The District Attorney’s office has also deputized a Special Prosecutor in the case. Eric Nichols is a Child Abuse Prosecutor in Tarrant County and will assist prosecution.

    https://www.newschannel6now.com/2021...-james-staley/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Capital murder trial of James Staley underway in Tarrant Co.

    Joshua Hoggard

    FORT WORTH (KFDX/KJTL) — More than four years after the tragic death of 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel, the process of selecting a jury for the trial of the man accused of his murder is now underway.

    According to documents from Tarrant County’s Criminal District Court 3, a panel of prospective jurors was scheduled to assemble on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, in the Jury Room of the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in downtown Forth Worth.

    The preliminary meeting of the jury panel marks the beginning stages of the trial of 40-year-old James Irven Staley, III, who is charged with capital murder and felony murder related to the 2018 death of Jason Wilder McDaniel at his residence on Irving Place in Wichita Falls.

    Potential jurors meet in Fort Worth

    Judge Everett Young, the presiding judge over the capital murder trial, said in a hearing earlier this month that Wednesday’s hearing was intended to be brief.

    According to Judge Young, the purpose of the hearing is for giving potential jurors instructions and distributing preliminary questionnaires to the pool of about 80 people prior to the beginning of voir dire on Thursday, February 23, 2023.

    In a hearing held on Thursday, February 9, 2023, final preparations were made for the questionnaire that will be distributed to all potential jurors ahead of voir dire proceedings.

    During voir dire, the preliminary examinations of potential witnesses and jurors, counsel will narrow down the jury pool to 12 fair and impartial people to serve as the trial’s jury for the duration of proceedings.

    State, defense each file motion in limine

    According to court documents, the State of Texas, represented by Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie and special prosecutor Eric Nickols, filed a motion in limine on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, asking the Court to instruct to refer to the victim only as “Jason Wilder McDaniel” or “a child under 10 years of age.”

    The State contends that referring to McDaniel as a two-year-old, a toddler, a baby, a small child, or any other words referring to McDaniel’s age at the time of his death would introduce facts of the case before a jury is vetted and selected.

    Staley’s defense attorneys, Mark Daniel and Terri Moore, also filed a motion in limine on Tuesday to exclude forensic analysis and opinions stated by witnesses that aren’t qualified to do so.

    The defense contends several witnesses will seek to offer evidence and opinions that they are not qualified to offer, and those witnesses who are not licensed by the Texas Forensic Science Commission are by law prohibited from offering such opinions.

    The defense said this includes law enforcement officials testifying in regard to results of “presumptive tests” conducted at the scene of an alleged crime.

    Testimony begins Monday, February 27

    Testimony is set to begin on Monday, February 27, 2023, two days after what would’ve been Wilder McDaniel’s seventh birthday.

    According to court documents, the State has filed a list of individuals that could potentially be called to testify during the trial. The State’s witness pool contains over 350 potential witnesses, with over 100 of those designated as experts.

    It was announced in a hearing earlier this month that Wilder’s mother, Amber McDaniel, will testify in Staley’s trial. Officials said there is no plea offer or deal on the table to address Amber McDaniel’s charges of abandoning or endangering a child or tampering with evidence in connection to Wilder’s death, but officials said they anticipate she will be cooperative.

    https://www.texomashomepage.com/news...ury-panel/amp/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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    Third day of testimony concludes in James Staley capital murder trial

    Joshua Hoggard

    FORT WORTH (KFDX/KJTL) — The third day of testimony in the capital murder trial of James Irven Staley, III, concluded around 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

    Following a recess for lunch after the testimonies of Detective Chad Nelson and the aunt of James Staley’s daughter, Amber Campisi, testimony resumed on Wednesday afternoon.

    First to take the stand on Wednesday afternoon was Betty Dean, a retired detective with the Wichita Falls Police Department who spent 30 years there, and responded to Staley’s residence on October 11, 2018.

    Dean testified that after she arrived on the scene, she saw blood around Wilder’s mouth, then checked the frenulum, or the small sliver of tissue connecting the top of the gums and the lip on the inside of the mouth.

    It has previously been discussed during proceedings that a sign of death by suffocation or asphyxiation is damaging or tearing of the frenulum. Dean noted Wilder’s frenulum was not damaged

    Dean later testified that she was present at Staley’s residence during the execution of a search warrant on October 22, 2018, and that she took Staley’s phone, but he declined to give her the passcode.

    During cross-examination, Dean testified that Detective Nelson was leaning heavily on her during the investigation, as it was his first homicide investigation.

    She also said that although she investigated Wilder’s body, she noted that she observed no injuries to Wilder’s tongue, nose, face, or frenulum, nor did she find any type of fabric in his mouth.

    Following Dean’s testimony, WFPD Officer Walter Vermillion was called to take the stand and testified about his role in collecting evidence on October 11, 2018, saying he removed a Mac Mini and HP laptop from the residence.

    The last witness to take the stand was Amber Koch, a former co-worker of Staley’s, who testified she received a video from Staley of Wilder apparently pooping, which she was unsure of why it was sent to her.

    Koch testified of Staley’s apprehension of being a stepfather to Wilder, and she testified that he was manipulative.

    Testimony is set to resume on Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 9 a.m.

    https://www.texomashomepage.com/news...der-trial/amp/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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    Jury delivers verdict in Staley murder trial

    By Trish Choate
    Wichita Falls Times Record News

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A jury handed down a guilty verdict in James Irven Staley III's murder trial Monday at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center.

    Jurors found Staley guilty of capital murder for the death of 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel.

    It took them about 4 hours to reach a verdict. The judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

    Wilder's mom, Amber McDaniel, read a victim impact statement before Staley. Another woman read a victim impact statement from the child's father, Bubba McDaniel.

    Senior District Judge Everett Young ordered Staley remanded to the custody of the Tarrant County sheriff.

    "I did not kill Wilder McDaniel," Staley said while being handcuffed.

    Cries of, "Yes, you did! Yes, you did!" rang out in the courtroom.

    "Order. Order," the judge said.

    Then the judge dismissed the court. Staley was led away by deputies, apparently to be held in Tarrant County Jail.

    Staley smothered Wilder with a pillow in his crib on Oct. 11, 2018, in a bedroom in a Wichita Falls home, according to prosecutors and witnesses for the prosecution.

    He was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and capital murder of a person younger than 10 years old. It was up to the jury to choose which charge if they opted to convict him.

    First-degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison. Since the Wichita County District Attorney's Office has waived the death penalty, Staley's capital murder conviction automatically brought a sentence of life in prison without parole.

    The case has attracted much attention among community members and those who have been part of the Justice For Wilder movement, which focused on Staley as the alleged culprit early on.

    Staley's arrest came in October 2020 about two years after Wilder's death. He has been free from jail on bonds of $1.2 million for murder charges in connection with the child's death.

    The judge decided to change the venue for the trial from Wichita County to Tarrant County last year, citing concerns about pretrial publicity, safety and the danger of vigilante violence.

    The process of jury selection began Feb. 22 with a questionnaire for prospective jurors, and 12 jurors and two alternates were selected Feb. 24.

    The verdict comes after nine days of testimony beginning Feb. 27 and lasting through Thursday. On Friday, attorneys worked on the charge that the judge read to the jury Monday.

    Closing arguments also took place Monday morning, and the jury retired to a jury room to deliberate at 11:59 a.m.

    For more on testimony in the trial, the Times Record News has blogs for Week One and Week Two of testimony, as well as Week Three, which includes Monday's court events.

    https://timesrecordnews.com/story/ne...l/70003140007/

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    Why Gillespie didn’t seek death penalty for James Staley

    Joshua Hoggard

    WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Justice was finally served for 2-year-old Wilder McDaniel on Monday, March 13, 2023, when James Irven Staley, III, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie has been asked many questions since coming home from prosecuting the case in Fort Worth, perhaps none more than why he didn’t seek the death penalty sentence for Staley.

    A defendant convicted of capital murder will be sentenced to either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Those are the only options for punishment.

    However, Gillespie took the death penalty off the table in 2021 when a motion was filed informing Staley’s defense team that the prosecution wouldn’t seek that punishment.

    The topic of the death penalty is often polarizing both politically and socially, but Gillespie’s stance isn’t why he sought an alternative sentence for Staley.

    “I do believe in the death penalty,” Gillespie said. “But, I also wanted to be smart about how we went about this prosecution.”

    Gillespie said the case against Staley, while it was clearly compelling enough to convince a jury of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, lacked a critical element needed to warrant a death sentence; a single piece of evidence so strong, it makes his guilt virtually irrefutable.

    “In this day and age, you do not want to seek death unless you have what they call a lay-down at guilt-innocence,” Gillespie said. “We did not have a confession, we did not have an eye witness.”

    During an interview between Gillespie and digital reporter Josh Hoggard on Thursday, Gillespie said the case against Staley was built on many compelling pieces of circumstantial evidence.

    Although it is widely believed that circumstantial evidence cannot prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Gillespie said that’s actually a misrepresentation of the truth. According to Gillespie, direct evidence is either an eyewitness testimony or a confession. Everything else, from DNA and forensic evidence to the relationship between the victim and the defendant, is considered circumstantial evidence.

    Despite what its name might imply, circumstantial evidence is defined as evidence pertaining to the circumstances of the crime committed. A common misunderstanding of circumstantial evidence is that it has less validity than direct evidence.

    Gillespie explained that although direct evidence and circumstantial evidence hold the same weight under Texas law, a majority of false convictions that occur are a result of bad eyewitness testimony.

    According to Gillespie, each piece of circumstantial evidence is akin to a piece of a puzzle. One piece of the puzzle can’t stand by itself, but when every piece is put together, a clear picture is created.

    “The fact that it was a circumstantial evidence case went into my thinking on whether or not to seek death,” Gillespie said.

    Another issue Gillespie says he wanted to avoid altogether was turning the already highly publicized case into a way for Staley to become a celebrity.

    “The Kardashians and everybody else lined up saying he’s falsely accused, that’s what they do with death penalty cases,” Gillespie said. “The last thing I wanted to do would be to turn that psychopath into a martyr.”

    Gillespie said the circumstantial evidence created a picture of a person who was above the law due to his family’s wealth.

    “He said in one of the text messages that I used in closing arguments that he makes his own rules and no one can tell him what to do,” Gillespie said.

    According to Gillespie, forcing Staley to live every single day behind the bars of a prison cell with no freedom and no escape for the rest of his natural life would be a sentence worse than death.

    “Frankly, with a guy that has been in charge of everything that’s called the shots, living in a cell like the animal that he is for the rest of his life, being told by other people what to do… I think that’s probably the worst thing that could happen to him,” Gillespie said.

    https://www.texomashomepage.com/news...es-staley/amp/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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    Amber McDaniel pleads to charges related to Wilder’s murder

    By Joshua Hoggard
    KFOR/KJTL

    WICHITA FALLS (KFOR/KJTL) — The mother of Jason Wilder McDaniel, who was indicted in July 2021 on charges related to the murder of her son, pleaded guilty to both offenses on Friday afternoon.

    Amber Nichole McDaniel, 33, of Wichita Falls, pleaded guilty to one count of endangering a child and one count of tampering with evidence on Friday afternoon, April 28, 2023, during a scheduled pre-trial hearing in Wichita County Court At Law 2, the temporary home of the 30th District Court.

    McDaniel will now face a jury of her peers to determine her sentence on these two charges. A date for that hearing has not yet been set. Sources close to the family said more information should be available next week.

    The plea comes less than two months after her former boyfriend, James Irven Staley, III, 40, was found guilty of the capital murder of Jason Wilder McDaniel by a Tarrant County jury and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    McDaniel was indicted in 2021 on one count of endangering a child and one count of tampering with evidence. She turned herself in on July 8, 2021, and posted her bond later the same day.

    The charges against McDaniel stem from the more than 9,000 text messages between herself and Staley over the course of their brief yet volatile relationship in 2018, many of which were read in open court during the testimony phase of Staley’s capital murder trial.

    It was disclosed during the trial that McDaniel had deleted those messages from her phone, partially when she performed a factory reset of the phone in the weeks prior to Wilder’s death, and partially when she deleted Staley’s contact information and all messages between herself and Staley in the days following Wilder’s death.

    The affidavit states that while the deleted messages show no violent messages from Amber about Wilder, “they show Amber ignoring or looking the other way regarding Staley’s expressed hatred and violence toward Wilder.”

    McDaniel took the stand to testify in the capital murder trial of Staley in Fort Worth on Monday, March 6, and Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

    While on the witness stand in Auxiliary Trial Room A of the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, McDaniel testified several times that she was aware that her testimony was being given “at her own peril”, meaning prosecutors will be able to use anything and everything she said from the stand against her regarding her pending charges.

    Despite having the ability to invoke her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to testify and incriminate herself, McDaniel testified that she “owed it to her son” to take the stand and testify against Staley.

    McDaniel also testified that when she agreed to testify in Staley’s capital murder trial, she did so without any deal or bargain on the table from the Wichita County District Attorney’s Office regarding any lesser sentence for the charges against her.

    McDaniel testified numerous times during cross-examination that she was unsure of what she would do regarding her pending charges upon returning to Wichita Falls after the conclusion of Staley’s trial.

    At one point, McDaniel testified that she wasn’t hoping that her charges would be dismissed because she chose to testify against Staley.

    During McDaniel's testimony on March 6 and 7, she addressed many of the “red flags” she ignored, stating from the stand that she “became numb to the constant barrage of insults from Staley” and stopped giving Staley any pushback to his negative statements because when she would, “Staley would make her feel crazy”.

    During Prosecutor Lisa Tanner's final line of questioning with McDaniel during Staley's capital murder trial, she instructed McDaniel to read a line she said during an initial interview with police following Wilder’s death in 2018, in which McDaniel stated to officers,

    “I should have freaking known.”

    Tanner said, “Truer words have never been spoken, have they?” McDaniel responded, “No”, with tears in her eyes.

    https://www.texomashomepage.com/news...-endangerment/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    James Staley III moved to Amarillo’s Bill Clements Unit

    Staley was found guilty in the 2018 capital murder death of Wilder McDaniel

    By Jenna Toulan
    KAUZ News

    WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - James Staley III, the man convicted for the murder of 2-year-old Wilder McDaniel, has been sent to the Bill Clements Unit in Amarillo.

    According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Staley had previously been held at the John Middleton Unit in Abilene since he was found guilty in March. The Middleton facility is an intake unit, which holds prisoners until their permanent location is determined.

    The TDCJ notes that Staley is now at the Amarillo unit, which holds all security classes of prisoners. It also functions as an administrative segregation unit for prisoners who require separation from the general population.

    There is no information at this time on whether Staley will be held in the administrative segregation unit or not.

    https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023...clements-unit/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Punishment trial in Fort Worth for Wilder's mom is fast approaching

    By Trish Choate
    Wichita Falls Times Record News

    The stage is being set for a Tarrant County jury to determine the fate of Amber Nichole McDaniel, mother of 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel. She has already pleaded guilty to child endangerment and tampering with evidence.

    Amber, 33, left it up to a jury to decide whether she will receive probation or spend time behind bars for her actions related to her child's murder case.

    Jury selection is set to begin Monday at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. A judge ordered the trial moved from Wichita County because of pretrial publicity.

    The punishment proceedings are likely to subject Wilder's family to reliving the heartrending events surrounding the child's death, as well as parts of the emotionally-draining trial for Wilder's murderer earlier this year.

    James Irven Staley III, Amber's ex-boyfriend and Wilder's killer, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. A Tarrant County jury convicted him March 13 of capital murder of a child under 10 years old.

    Prosecutors believe Staley meticuiously planned Wilder's murder and smothered him to death in a bedroom in the oil scion's Country Club home Oct. 11, 2018, to get rid of a child he didn't want around.

    During Staley's murder trial, Amber testified against him for several hours, incriminating herself in the process.

    Subpoena requests have been flying from defense attorney Mark Barber, and Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie filed the state's original witness list in June.

    It is six pages long — unlike the 21-page original witness list filed for Staley's trial. But there are familiar names on the state's list of possible witnesses for Amber's punishment trial.

    They include Wilder's family members such as his dad and Amber's husband, Robert "Bubba" McDaniel Jr., his aunt and his "PawPaw." Also listed are Staley's sister and mother, and his childhood friend.

    In addition, Dr. Suzanne Dakil, a specialist in child-abuse pediatrics from Dallas, is among those who may be called to the stand to testify for the state. Dakil was a key witness in Staley's trial.

    The defense has listed two experts who might testify: Amanda Vickers, a Wichita Falls therapist, and Dr. Daunne Peters, a local pediatrician.

    Amber pleaded guilty April 28 in 30th District Court in Wichita Falls to endangering a child for bringing Wilder around Staley.

    She also entered a guilty plea to tampering with evidence for deleting some electronic messages between herself and Staley that prosecutors say showed his hostility toward the little boy.

    Amber is eligible for probation and has never been convicted of a felony. She faces two to 10 years in prison for evidence tampering, a third-degree felony, and six months to 24 months in state jail for child endangerment, a state jail felony.

    Her decision to plead guilty and allow a jury to determine her sentence means only one part of a usually two-part trial was necessary. Typically, a guilty-not guilty phase is presented before a jury. If a defendant is convicted, a penalty phase follows to determine a sentence unless it is an automatic sentence.

    Amber was free Wednesday from the Wichita County Detention Center on $60,000 in bonds, according to online jail records.

    Staley, who denied his guilt just after sentencing, has filed to appeal his conviction with the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth.

    https://www.timesrecordnews.com/stor...g/70768059007/
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