McCandless asking for new trial in Town of Spring Brook murder
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Ezra J. McCandless, who was convicted by a jury in the fall of 2019 in the first degree intentional homicide of Alexander Woodworth in the Town of Spring Brook in March of 2018, is asking for a new trial.
A motion was filed in Dunn County Circuit Court December 22, according to online court records.
McCandless is represented by attorneys Kelsey Loshaw and Colleen Marion.
The motion alleges that the jury never heard the full story, and certain statements McCandless made to investigators should have been excluded from the trial, according to various news reports.
McCandless’s attorneys filed for extensions to file a post-conviction motion or a notice of appeal 10 times, according to online court records for Wisconsin Appeals Court District 3.
The first request for an extension was filed in May of 2020, and the time for filing was extended to August 17, 2020. Additional requests for an extension were subsequently filed, with the last request being filed December 15 and an extension granted to December 22.
A hearing has not yet been scheduled on the motion for a new trial, according to online court records.
Judge James Peterson sentenced McCandless to life in prison in February of 2020 and set McCandless’s eligibility for petitioning the court for extended supervision after she has served 50 years.
Conviction of first degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin requires a mandatory life sentence.
McCandless, who is now 25 years old, was 20 at the time of the murder and 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.
Self-defense
During the three-week trial in the fall of 2019, McCandless’s attorneys Aaron Nelson and D. Vishny argued that McCandless had stabbed Woodworth in self defense.
The prosecutors in the case, — Dunn County District Attorney Andrea Nodolf and state Assistant Attorney General Richard Dufour — said McCandless had lured Woodworth to his death in the farm field that was out of sight of the road.
Woodworth was a philosophy student at UW-Eau Claire and had been planning to apply for graduate school.
Certain statements McCandless made were inconsistent with the evidence.
For example, McCandless said Woodworth had attacked her in the back seat of the car, and that she had stabbed him inside the car, but the blood evidence associated with Woodworth being stabbed was mostly located outside of the car.
Prosecutors said that while no one would ever know the true story, they believed Woodworth had gotten into the back seat of the car to try to get away from McCandless. His body was found hanging out of the car’s open back door.
Medical experts testified at trial that Woodworth had virtually no defense wounds, indicating to them that he had been taken by surprise when McCandless began stabbing him.
Relationships
McCandless and Woodworth had dated, although McCandless had broken off the relationship approximately one month before his 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.
Ten days before the homicide, McCandless told Jason Mengle, with whom she also had a relationship, that she wanted to confront Alex, to tell him to stay out of her life and that she regretted meeting him.
Mengle broke up with McCandless after he had found out that she was unfaithful to him and had a relationship with Woodworth.
Prosecutors say they believe McCandless killed Woodworth as part of her plan to get back together again with Mengle, an Army medic who was more than 10 years older than McCandless.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Peterson said the court had allowed evidence some people viewed as an assassination of Alexander Woodworth’s character, but the testimony was rejected by the jury, and there was no evidence Alex did anything wrong.
Alex was described as kind, gentle, witty and compassionate, and his death is a great loss for his family, his friends and for the community, Judge Peterson said.
20 years
McCandless’s attorneys and members of her family had asked that McCandless be allowed to apply for extended supervision after serving 20 years in prison.
The pre-sentence investigation report recommended 50 years before McCandless could be eligible to apply for extended supervision.
Eligibility for extended supervision in 20 years would not serve the community. One of Alex’s uncles asked for 60 years, one year for every day the family had to wait for Alex’s body before they could lay him to rest, Judge Peterson said at the sentencing hearing.
Nelson, McCandless’s attorney, had argued Woodworth’s body be held as evidence should the defense want to request an independent autopsy.
In November of 2018, McCandless changed her plea from “not guilty” to “not guilty” and “not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.”
In February of 2019, McCandless changed her plea back to “not guilty.”
Section 971.15 of the Wisconsin Statutes defines not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, which is also referred to as “NGI.” A defendant can be considered NGI if the defendant lacks the capacity to understand his or her conduct was wrong and is so ill, he or she cannot understand what has been done is illegal. A defendant also can be considered NGI if the person is so ill, he or she cannot control his or her actions.
In the case of a trial where a defendant has pleaded NGI, the prosecution must prove the person is guilty of the crime, and it is then up to the defendant to convince the jury that he or she is not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
A farmer in the Town of Spring Brook called 911 the afternoon of March 22, 2018, when a young woman came to his house with torn clothes, muddy pants, no shoes and blood on her face and hands.
Woodworth had last been seen alive in Eau Claire earlier in the afternoon.
Prosecutors say they believe McCandless stabbed Woodworth and then spent several hours rearranging the crime scene before going to the farmer’s residence.
