The Wichita County District Attorney’s Office is trying to keep convicted child killer James I. Staley III from getting a new trial.
Staley, scion of a prominent Wichita Falls oil family, was convicted of the capital murder of 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel in March 2023. Because of the victim’s age, Staley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Staley’s lawyers appealed the conviction and the Texas Second Court of Appeals on March 6, 2025, in Fort Worth overturned it and ordered that Staley get a new trial.
But the DA’s Office on May 5 filed a petition for discretionary review with the higher Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in an attempt to get the conviction reinstated.
On a key issue, the Second Court determined the seizure of Staley’s cellphone, laptop and Apple Mac Mini lacked probable cause and that the trial court should not have allowed evidence from the devices.
But the DA’s Office argues evidence from the devices shows “fraught relationships” in a household where Staley had lived with Jason Wilder McDaniel and the child’s mother, Amber Odom McDaniel, and provided critical evidence of Staley’s state of mind and intent.
The petition contends police found incriminating evidence on the devices and the search did not violate constitutional standards.
On another point, Gillespie said in reversing the conviction the Second Court of Appeals ignored all the evidence in the case except some video of Staley striking the child weeks before the murder.
“The remaining evidence was not merely cumulative but overwhelming,” the DA’s brief contends. “The case described in the (Second Court’s) opinion was unrecognizable from the multi-week capital-murder case actually tried.”
The DA’s Office also contends in the petition that the Second Court of Appeals did not follow Court of Criminal Appeals case law as required.
Gillespie told TRN it could take from one to six months for the Court of Criminal Appeals to decide whether to consider his petition and then up to a year to act if they decide to consider it.
“If they do not review, the next step is it gets remanded for a new trial. We’ll simply try it again,” Gillespie said.
He said Staley remains in prison during the appeals process.
Staley’s trial was moved to Fort Worth on a change of venue due to media coverage and publicity in Wichita Falls. A jury there convicted him of smothering the toddler in his crib on Oct. 11, 2018.
Prosecutors told jurors Staley hated and abused the child and had planned and staged the murder.
In September 2023, Amber Odom McDaniel, was sentenced to two years in state jail after pleading guilty to child endangerment and five years of probation for evidence tampering in connection with the murder case.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: DA moves to stop new trial for James Staley
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
