Dunn County judge denies request from McCandless for new homicide trial
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A Dunn County judge has denied a request for a new trial for convicted murderer Ezra J. McCandless.
Judge James Peterson made an oral ruling on the request November 10 in Dunn County Circuit Court.
A six-hour hearing for a new trial was held in Dunn County Circuit Court July 3.
McCandless, age 26, appeared by video from Taycheedah Correctional Institute in Fond du Lac at the November 10 hearing. Her attorneys, Kelsey Loshaw and Colleen Marie Marion, also appeared by video, according to online court records.
Judge Peterson sentenced McCandless in February of 2020 to life in prison, with eligibility to petition for extended supervision after serving 50 years, for the murder of Alexander Woodworth.
A jury found McCandless guilty of first degree intentional homicide in November of 2019.
McCandless, who was 20 years old at the time, stabbed the 24-year-old Woodworth 16 times.
Woodworth’s body was discovered in McCandless’s car in the Town of Spring Brook, south of Elk Mound, on Friday, March 23, 2018.
During the three-week trial in the fall of 2019, McCandless’s attorneys argued that McCandless had stabbed Woodworth in self defense.
Ineffective counsel
McCandless based part of her request for a new trial on the ineffective assistance of her attorneys at the murder trial.
Common ineffective counsel claims include failure to conduct an adequate investigation; failure to file or litigate pre-trial motions; failure to object to the introduction of inadmissible evidence; failure to preserve issues for appeal; failure to convey or properly advise a defendant about a plea agreement; and failure to present mitigating evidence at trial, according to online sources.
In his oral ruling, Judge Peterson said he finds it uncharacteristic that McCandless’s defense attorney team would be characterized as providing ineffective assistance as counsel since the defense team attorneys are very knowledgeable attorneys, according to online court records.
In addition, the judge noted that the evidence which had been submitted at trial had been “voluminous.”
Judge Peterson also said that McCandless’s testimony during the trial did not match the evidence that had been submitted.
There was a “panorama of evidence” in the case, and Judge Peterson said he did not believe that the testimony was not credible.
The performance of law enforcement was sufficient, he said.
The journals written by Alexander Woodworth that had been submitted as evidence did not show anything that was meant to harm McCandless, the judge said.
Woodworth was not seeking out the defendant, and on the day he was murdered, McCandless initiated contact with Woodworth, Judge Peterson said.
The defense was asking for an acquittal on self defense, and the instructions to the jury were proper, the judge said.
Judge Peterson dismissed the motion pertaining to ineffectiveness of counsel.
McCandless’s story was inconsistent with the evidence, he said.
Judge Peterson said he did not believe a new trial would be in the interests of justice and denied the motion for a new trial.
March 22, 2018
McCandless and Woodworth had dated, although McCandless had broken off the relationship approximately one month before Woodworth’s death and had told Woodworth she never wanted to see him again.
There was no indication Woodworth had attempted to contact McCandless after that, but on March 22, 2018, McCandless went to Woodworth’s apartment in Eau Claire to return several items and to talk about their relationship.
She had been living with her step-father in Stanley.
McCandless drove Woodworth to a remote location in the Town of Spring Brook to a farm field that could not be seen from the road.
After stabbing Woodworth 16 times, she left her car and Woodworth and ran to a nearby farmhouse were she appeared disheveled and bloody and seemed incoherent.
Law enforcement officials discovered Woodworth’s body a day later.
The 80-page motion for a new trial states that McCandless received ineffective counsel, that the jury was allowed to consider inflammatory and inadmissible character evidence, that the jury received incorrect and incomplete instructions on how to consider psychological evidence, and that the state made improper closing arguments, according to news reports from when the petition for a new trial was submitted in December of 2022.
Alexander Woodworth was a philosophy student at UW-Eau Claire and had been planning to apply for graduate school.
