November 21, 2024 • 37 mins
In this episode, we’re diving into the twisted and tragic story of Ezra McCandless, a young woman with a turbulent love life that led to a shocking and brutal crime. Ezra’s tale is one of passion, betrayal, and deadly obsession—capturing headlines and the public's morbid curiosity.We’ll dissect the events that led up to that fateful day, the complex relationships that fueled her actions, and the strange web of lies and manipulation uncovered in the courtroom. Was Ezra a master manipulator who took things too far, or was she another victim of a tragic love triangle?Early access listeners, prepare to be pulled into the chilling story of “Killer Girlfriend” Ezra McCandless. This is one case you won’t want to miss.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including
descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'm Tleah and we are
Crimes and Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I am doing great? How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I am doing pretty good myself. Just working on my list?
All right, your list, my list of I guess you
could say it's a bucket list. Very nice. I'd like
to accomplish. And I've just added becoming a pro billiards
player and a professional darks woman. I'd like to ace.
(00:59):
I would like Yeah, I like to rule the bar scene.
Oh and yeah billiards and darts.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, both the last ones.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Perfect.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
What about you?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
What are you working on? What self improvements are you
working on? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Girl, I'm just trying to get through the day. I mean, seriously, you.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Know with this that the time change makes it a
long week.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I wake up and I'm like, I can't believe it's
only seven forty eight. I feel like and in the morning,
I'm like, I don't know what to do. Do I
go back to bed or or doom scroll.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So what do you not for us today?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I have today story about missus Ezra mccandleist and her victim,
Alexander Sydney.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
All right, is this a love triangle?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yes, So we're wherever you're listening right now. You hit
subscribe and you can follow us from here to eternity,
and we're here for you. We'd love to have your
further ride, isn't that right?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
You'll get notifications if you follow.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Us, that's right. And we're working on our new logo
that's coming along just so beautifully and some new swag
is very exciting and for sure, for sure.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
We love you.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So well, let me get you started on this story, right.
I'm going to give you a little bit of background
on Alexander Lehman Sidney Alex Woodworth twenty four years old.
He was born on January first, nineteen ninety four in
Saint Path Paul's, Wisconsin, so he's a Capricorn. And then
(02:46):
I also did look up his zodiac Chinese signed browster.
It's a little sketchy around our New Years because their
New Year's sometimes is in February, so in the Year
of the Rooster. Now Alex's parents where John and Kimberley
Woodworth family lived in o Claire, Wisconsin, and Alex was
(03:09):
the oldest of four siblings, and he really enjoyed being
the big brother and his extracurricular hobbies and activities. He
loved reading, being at the coffee shop, and just helping
people in general. Alex cherished the time he spent with
his family and friends. So pretty cool guy, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Alex attended Ociola Ociola High School and he graduated in
twenty twelve, and then he went on to the University
of Wisconsin o'clare where he received his bachelor's degree in
philosophy and biology in the spring of twenty seventeen. So
(03:49):
that would be before the pandemic. That's the time line
of things.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yes, in post.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Panties and posts, this is three. He attended and graduated
the University of Oregon with intentions of graduating with his
master's degree in philosophy. Now we're going to meet Ezra.
Ezra Jane McCanless twenty. She was born October sixth, nineteen
ninety seven, in Stanley, Wisconsin, and she was born Monica
(04:22):
Kay to a mother. Her mom was only fourteen when
she had Ezra. Her name is Rosalina Gunlson. Ezra's biological
father was not part of her life. She was later
Monica Carlin after her mother's partner, Jesshane Carlin, adopted her
(04:42):
when she was four years old, and her mom and
her stepfather divorced when she was twelve, but she continued
to have a close relationship with her adoptive father, Jashane.
So Ezra later explained that she gave herself a new
name at the age of eighteen because she felt Ezra
was a better fit for her than Monica, and she
(05:04):
picked the last name McCandless in honor of the free
spirit Chris McCanless, whose life was memorialized in the book
and film called Into the Wild and Ezra. She lived
in Stanley, Wisconsin, and during high school, Ezra she decided
to try out different names and pronouns, you know, finding herself.
(05:28):
She dropped out of college and moved to Eau Claire
from Stanley, and she worked at the Stanley Boyd Area
School District. Now, Ezra was in a love triangle, well
sexually involved with two other men at the same time.
One man his name is John Hanson and the other
Jason Mangle. Ezra was very much more attracted to Jason Mongole.
(05:53):
They were on again, off again, and she'd wanted always
to go back. Ezra met Alex at a coffee shop
he worked as a barista, called Racy Delane's Coffee Lounge.
Ezra was in a relationship with Jason Mengel at the time,
and they all three became friends. Jason was a National
Guard medic and he told CBS News that Ezra was
(06:16):
going through an emotional time emotional things, and that Alex
was a really good friend, and he said, I kind
of pushed them together at one time because I knew
they both had similar viewpoints. He had some things in
his life that I figured she could help with, and
I thought he could help her with things in her life.
So Jason soon discovered that Ezra and Alex had developed
(06:40):
a romantic relationship. Ezra then ended her relationships with both
Alex and Jason, but then later attempted to rekindle her
relationship with Jason. So that's what it seems like. You know,
it's I'm with you, I'm not with you. I'm with
but I don't It doesn't sound like other people know
that they're only she does, right, you know. So in
(07:05):
mid February, when Jason was gone on two weeks of
National Guard duty, Ezra she moved back to her mom's
house in Stanley, and when Jason came back, he would
meet up with her at hotels. And during one of
the hotel stays, Jason read messages on Ezra's phone and
he found out about her relationship with Alex and John Hanson.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
We got to lock up that.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Vulgar oh boy, right who? Now she accused them of
sexual assault of John Hanson of sexual assault. So now
Jason he goes out, he confronts both men and where
the three men had a public argument at a coffee shop.
So Ezra's telling Jason one thing. Everybody's getting different stories
(07:51):
from Ezra. Now. Ezra blamed Alex for ending her relationship
with Jason. On February twenty fourth, twenty eighteen, Ezra sent
Alex attacks that told him not to ever talk to
her again. Ezra then sent Jason journals in which she
expressed how such she was for betraying him. Can you
(08:12):
imagine that, Tanya you like getting back? Let me show
you my journal entries on how tore up I was
for betraying you. So this is proof you got to
take me back.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You got to take me back because I really was upset.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Read it. These are my journals cheering. This is authentic.
So Ezra had moved from eu Claire to Stanley, but
had showed up in Eclaire to surprise Jason. She met
him at the coffee shop where he worked, and then
she told him she wanted to show Alex some of
her writings. Jason and Ezra had messaged each other six
(08:53):
hundred times the night before she came into town, and
Jason claimed that as had been emotionally down, and she
told him that that day that she planned to take
her life back and she was going to be Ezra again. Well,
Jason became suspicious and he tracked down Ezra to Alex's house,
(09:16):
where he confronted them both about the nature of their relationship.
Then the three went their separate ways, and I'll tell
you but Ezra shows up to the Simple House three
hours later from this meeting. Now, Ezra allegedly planned to
speak with Alex to have him admit that their affair
was a mistake, which would help her get Jason back.
(09:38):
A police officer arrives to Alex's house after a passerby
called police to report that Jason was standing outside pacing
looking very suspicious. For about forty five minutes, one officer
spoke with Alex, and another spoke with Jason, and another
spoke with Ezra, who was waiting in the front seat
of her car. Jason I told the officer that he
(10:01):
was concerned about Ezra because if she gave me a
vibe today, man, I don't know. It doesn't feel right.
Something feels wrong. The bobser concluded that everything seems normal
and then they leave. Now, Ezra, she found out she
was pregnant and early fall of twenty seventeen, with Jason's child,
she drove to Minneapolis to have an abortion, and not
(10:24):
long after the abortion, Ezra began her secret relationship with Alex.
And Ezra's previous relationship had deteriorated after she decided to
terminate her pregnancy, and she claimed that she was young, confused,
and felt rushed into the abortion. She said the decision
(10:45):
left her empty and hurt emotionally and physically, and she
claimed that she ended the relationship with Jason and the
relationship with Alex was just within a few weeks of
that breakup. Okay, so now it's March twenty second, twenty eighteen,
and around four fifteen pm on that day, the dun
(11:06):
County Sheriff Office received a call from Don Sipple that
a young woman had arrived on foot at his house
in the east seventy six hundred block of fortieth Avenue
in the town of Springbrook. Sypple reported that the woman
was bloody, barefoot, and muddy. A deputy responded with the
Wisconsin State trooper and the woman was later identified as
(11:29):
Ezra McCanless now. The deputy found Ezra's hair to be
disheveled and noted blood around her mouth, on her knuckles,
her left arm, and upper right thigh visible through a
hole in her pants. She appeared to be very upset
and crying, but the deputy said he didn't see any
visible tears. Little asterisk. Ezra was not able to provide
(11:53):
her name or address when asked by the trooper. She
did give the name of Jason Mangle of Oak Cleay Is,
someone to contact on her behalf. Ezra was taken by
ambulance to the mail clinic in Eau Claire, which was
followed by a dun County deputy, and at the hospital,
the deputy could see the word boy cut into Ezra's
(12:15):
left arm. Ezra claimed that Alex attacked her and after
the attack she carved the word boy onto her arm.
That this is going to flip flop back and forth
this story. While at the hospital, the deputy also learned
that Ezra had changed her name from Monica Carlin in
twenty fifteen. Ezra initially claimed that Alex attacked her in
(12:40):
retaliation after she stopped identifying as a man, which was
an identity that she said Alex preferred. Ezra claimed this
is what prompted Alex to carve the word boy in
her arm, but then later confessed to marking herself.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Okay, so she so, Ezra identified as a man at
one point and Alex really liked that, and now that
she identifies as a girl, he carved the word boy
in her.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Arm in a spiteful way.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yes, okay, okay, after the.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Attack, Yes, on her left arm.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Now. She said that in high school she had often
questioned her gender. Ezra told detectives that Alex had picked
up on that and he used to call me like
boy a lot and just say stuff like that. But
I don't really identify that way anymore. That's what. Yeah,
her thing is that he would call her a boy
(13:41):
or however she identified as in changing. That was very upsetting.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
So what happened.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
The doctor who examined Ezra on March twenty second noted
that the angle of the wounds indicated that they could
be self inflicted, and the letters carved in her left
arm were orientated for her to look at. Ezra. I
was like, oh, I'm also a right hander.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You're a lustee, yes, you know, so harving up my
right arm, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
In a way that you could see. Yeah, Like now
see that gives me a new perspective. I'm like, Wow,
if I really wanted to sell it, you got to
do backwards, yeah, or backwards or.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Just yeah in the mirror something.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I think that's diabolically clever to have that much planning.
But she did it. She had it, Yes, she had
it to where you could easily see it for her.
So Ezra admitted to the hospital staff that she had
self harm in the past. Then, while being treated at
the hospital, Ezra was interviewed by detectives. Investigators at the
(14:48):
scene realized that Alex was missing and contacted his family.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Oh well yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The dun County deputy reached out to the Eau Claire
Police Department for help finding Jason Mengele, and an officer
said earlier that day, around twelve thirty pm, police made
contact with Ezra, Jason, and Alex remember in the driveway
of Alex's home. So, when asked what happened that day,
(15:15):
Ezra admitted that she was at Alex's house and left
to go to Owen Park in the city, where she
claimed that Alex allegedly attacked her and cut boy into
her arm. Now, in an interview review of cameras in
the area, the officer could find no evidence of Ezra's
car coming or going from the park, noting that the
(15:35):
alleged assault took place near a busy intersection with lots
of vehicles in pedestrian traffic. So at this point an
investigator took over the investigation and observed that a significant
amount of time had taken place between the time Ezra
was found at the Sivil residence and the last time
(15:57):
she was seen with Alex. For his safety, an unsuccessful
search for Alex was initiated by the city and the
County of Eau Claire. On March twenty third, twenty eighteen,
around three pm, the investigators went to Sipples home to
interview on a second time, and as they drove up,
(16:18):
they noticed a mud covered road leading off to the
south of four hundred and thirtieth Avenue, about a forty
acre parcel east of the Sipple home. One of the
investigators returned to the dirt road and found a single
set of bare footprints in the mud that lacked the
ridge detail found in a shoe pattern. He also observed
(16:39):
tire tracks leading up to the muddy road. Now walking
up the side of the road, the detectives located a
two thousand and three Chevy and pala with license plate
that later confirmed it as Ezra's car. The car also
had multiple colorful drawings on the exterior. The driver's side
rear door was standing open and clothing could be seen
(17:01):
lying on the ground outside, so the detectives could see
that what appeared to be the head and upper body
of a person lying partly outside the door. With blood
around the car and no signs of life, it was
clear the person was deceased. Once they confirmed that there
were no other victims in the scene, the detectives backed
(17:24):
out of the area to preserve the crime scene, and
they called the dun County Sheriff's office to complete the investigation,
and the body was identified as Alex Woodworth and he
was taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office the
following day, March twenty fourth, for his autopsy examination. According
(17:45):
to the autopsy report, the cause of death was multiple
sharp force injuries sixteen total and the manner of death
was homicide and a scarf was found around Alex's neck
in a parent attempt to stop his bleeding. H Now,
March twenty fourth, Ezra McCanless was interviewed by investigators and
(18:06):
she told them she drove to Alex's house to return
some things to him, and she said they wanted to
talk with each other and decided to go to a
public place. Initially, she was in the driver's seat with
Alex in the passenger seat, and then Ezra became anxious
and had Alex drive instead. So Ezra claimed that they
(18:28):
ended up on a dirt road on that four hundred
and thirtieth Avenue in Springbrook in dun County, where they
got stuck in the mud and she alleged that Alex
attacked her in the vehicle and carved the word boy
in her arm. Ezra claimed that she had betrayed Alex
and he attempted to rape her with a knife in
(18:48):
the back seat of the car. She said he cut
her clothes off with the knife, but Ezra them meet
him in the groin and then grabbing the blade side
of the knife. She said she was able to take
the blade from Alex and admitted to stabbing him anywhere
and everywhere now. The knife involved in the incident had
(19:09):
been in the trunk of Ezra's car. Ezra had been
working for her father's tree service, and the knife was
constantly being put in and taken out of the vehicle.
Ezra later testified that her father said the knife could
be used to break glass or to cut a seatbelt.
She also stated that her father also thought she should
(19:29):
be prepared for anything if she encountered a situation where
she was in danger and she needed to do anything
to get away.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So it was why she got this knife in her car.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
It's always on the ready, exactly. So. Ezra believed that
she stabbed Alex in the Genitalia area bya's leigh. The stomach,
neck back by the ribs inside of his head. She
did not respond when asked how the word boy got
put onto her arm, but latermitted she put it there
(20:00):
after she stabbed Alex. So, if you're gonna change.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Her story again, if you're gonna.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Use you know, you're going to plant some evidence that
has gotta be a solid ass story, right, never changes, ever,
not ever. And then it feels, yeah, it is so
waterproof air for air tights.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
She's all over the place.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, I did it. He did it. Now she's arrested.
Ezra McCanless was suspected in Alex's death and was in
custody at the dun County Jail scheduled to attend a
bond hearing on March twenty eighth of twenty eighteen on
the charge of first degree intentional homicide, and according to
(20:43):
dun County District Attorney Andrea Nadell, Ezra McCandless confessed to
killing Alex after being interviewed by investigators from dun County
and the Eau Claire Police Department, and a cash bond
of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was set for
Ezra in Dune County attorney Nodall asked that a bond
(21:03):
of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars be set, in
amount that Ezra's attorney called ridiculous in light of what
he called a lack of evidence and the fact that
Ezra had no prior record. Ezra's defense attorney asked that
she be released on co signature bond with her mother now.
Judge Smeltzer noticed that there had been an extensive investigation
(21:26):
and found probable cause that Ezra had committed the crime,
and he set the bond to two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, with the condition that she neither leave Done
County or Chippewa County. So the preliminary hearing that's going
to be on Wednesday, the twenty fifth, the Dunn County
(21:47):
Judge James Peterson found probable cause that Ezra committed first
degree intentional homicide using a dangerous weapon and bound her
over for trial. He stated that based on Ezra's mental
state and statements that she made during her initial court
appearance on the sixth April sixth, he had questions about
(22:08):
whether she was competent to stand for trial, and he
ordered that she undergo a competency evaluation now May twenty second,
twenty eighteen the competency hearing. A status conference was held
on that day, where Judge Peterson announced that, according to
the evaluation report from the clinical psychologists and a consultant
(22:30):
with the Wisconsin Forensic Unit, Ezra was mentally fit to
stand trial on charges of first degree intentional homicide and
use of a deadly weapon. In a letter to the
Judge James Peterson, Ezra's defense attorney stated that she wanted
to change her plea from not guilty to not guilty
by reason of mental disease or defect. This change in
(22:53):
plea occurred even after Ezra had already passed all of
her mental evaluations. So the hearing, Yeah, it's like, wow,
didn't you guys get this paperwork? Hi?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
You got the connectioncy evaluation?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I doubt I would a judge look at that. You think, well,
you're the judge and you're.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Like, what is this flying?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Soay right, and the prosecutor is going to bring that
exam into the trial. So what the jury's going to say?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Thank you? Yeah? Now, December third, that's the hearing. And
during the court hearing, Judge Peterson denied motions to suppress
audio recordings of Ezra's interview with authorities, determining that her
March twenty third interview with detectives was voluntary and not
an interrogation. The March twenty fourth interview with investigators was
(23:50):
deemed to be an interrogation, but Ezra was able to
leave it anytime. So now Ezra's trial was set to
begin April second, Toy nineteen. She withdrew her plea of
not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. On
February sixth, in a court hearing, Ezra's defense attorney stated
(24:12):
that he expects her to testify at her trial. In April.
Ezra told multiple people that she was assaulted by two
people as a child, by a man in twenty seventeen
and by another man in twenty eighteen, just one month
before Alex was stabbed. Now supposedly, Ezra told Jason that
(24:33):
one of his friends raped her in twenty seventeen. Jason
went to the Oak Claire Police Department, who investigated the
claim but did not charge the man. The Oak Claire
Police Department investigated the twenty eighteen assault allegation against one
of the men The man's lawyer said that if called
as a witness in the trial, the man will invoke
(24:56):
his right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions.
The report filed against this man was false and was
an attempt to cover up a consensual sexual relationship with
a different man. Wow, sounds familiar. That's her game.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah right, you know she's got.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
One of them as the fall guy. Someone's going to
be the fall guy.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
So the sexually graphic text messages between Ezra and the
man accused of the assault proved that the encounter was consensual.
The prosecutors alleged that Ezra was sexually involved with three
minutes a time. In February of twenty eighteen, Ezra was
struggling with guilt, regret, gender identity, a move from Eau
(25:41):
Claire to Stanley. According to prosecutors, they want to introduce
the assault report, Ezra's journal, and several of Ezra's text
messages as evidence, claiming that these materials are highly relevant
to playing contexts and motive and intent. Now, ezra defense
attorney stated that Ezra's sexual history and prior sexual assaults
(26:05):
are not relevant to whether she intended to kill Alex
or if she did, whether she was acting in self defense.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I think she's full of shit.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I do too, but I'd like this. The defense attorney like,
how is her previous sexual history about well, unless well,
obviously it's her game plan. So you know, it's like
she she's got a fall guy. Because this is what
happened before. There's a pattern developing your people. The trial
(26:39):
began on October fourteenth, twenty nineteen, in dun County. It
was supposed to be April second, but it got moved
to later in the year October due to the defense
receiving over twelve hundred pages of possible evidence from Alex's
computer and letters written by Ezra while in jail. Yeah right.
(27:00):
The Assistant Attorney General Richard dufour and dun County District
Attorney Andrea n Adult state that Ezra intentionally lord Alex
to dun County to murder him to rid herself of
guilt and regret surrounding her situation.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
The defense, she wanted to be with Jason, right, she.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Wants to be with Jason, and but then she gets
pregnant by Jason. Sounds she's very confused. Yeah, you know,
just her own sexual identity. Then she's, you know, got
this taxic kind of draw magnetism to Jason. She gets pregnant,
then she has an abortion so she can pursue Alex.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Right, just the but yeah, there's Jameson's right.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
She did it to like get rid of Alex, like for.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Feeling bad about the situation with her ad Jason. Maybe
it sounds like how she's unable to keep shit straight,
but she feels great guilt about what she may or
may not have inflicted and you know a lot of
mental stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Maybe right, maybe.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Maybe, But the defense now their case, Ezra's defense attorney
said that Alex took violent and aggressive acts against Ezra
in the back seat of a vehicle that was stuck
in the mud in a secluded rural area, a total
self defense. That was the case now. The evidence drawings
(28:24):
of knives and several of Alex's journals were considered crucial
evidence in the case. The drawings were of a similar
knife to what was used in the stabbing, which makes
the drawings highly relevant to motive and intent to kill
Alexander Woodworth. Noo said there is no evidence that suggests
that Ezra was the artist of the drawings, only that
(28:47):
the drawings were found with her belongings. Now, yeah, yeah,
it's your journal, but these might not be your doodles.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
You might yeah, you might not have doodle in it.
Oh noof somebody else is drawing knives in your journal.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Oh yeah, your private thoughts?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Is that my journal?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Ezra's defense team wanted over one hundred pages of Alex's
journals and writings allowed into evidence. The journals had many
references to cannibalism and some to death and suicide, according
to the court documents. Ezra's defense team argued that she
knew the contents of the journals, which prompted her to
fight back when he attacked her. Now, prosecutors claim that
(29:32):
Alex's references to cannibalism, death, and suicide were metaphors since
he was a philosophy student that tended to teach philosophy someday, Okay,
that doesn't make sense because I forgot how educated he
is too.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Don't know, because I'm thinking, like, oh, she knows he
writes about cannibalism, so she's afraid, like he's going to
kill her an eater or something like.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, it's like poetry, you know, high coups. Yeah, exactly.
Ezra testified that she stabbed Alex because quote, I was
afraid he was going to kill me unquote. She testified
that she went to a nearby house for help, but
did not mention that she had stabbed Alex and he
(30:16):
was in the car. She also did not tell responding
officers an emergency personnel about stabbing Alex either. A forensic
scientist called to testify stated that Alex had more than
likely lived up to thirty minutes after being stabbed. None
of his wounds right, none of his wounds were immediately
life threatening or to the spinal cord.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
How horrible is It's really sad, like he just bled
out and you know what, probably could have danger, yeah,
and for help and told somebody in the ambulance came.
They might have been able to save him.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yes, thirty minutes are for sure. The verdict came in
on November first, twenty nineteen. Ezrael was found guilty a
first degree intentional homicide in the death of Alex. The
jury deliberated for three hours and seventeen minutes.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
That's nothing.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
That is that's probably a bad sign if you're wanting
to get off huh. Oh.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
It is, for sure. The longer they're deliberating, the better
it is.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I've always had her chances, I bet. Yeah. Sence, the
sentence thing was on Friday, February seventh, twenty twenty. Oh, right,
right before the pani before. Yes, yes, the month before.
Oh my goodness, so yeah, months before the pandemic began.
February seven, twenty twenty, Ezra was sentenced to life in prison,
(31:41):
with the possibility to petition for extended supervision after fifty years. Jeez.
So yeah, now, God, my goodness, that's the young You're
in your seventies. I'd have to kind of scroll back
and I can't remember her age twenties, said she was
twenty yeah, yes, twenty wow. In December of twenty twenty two,
(32:03):
Ezra's attorneys filed emotion to vacate the conviction and order
a new trial. The nearly eighty page motion cites ineffective
assistance of council, that the jury was able to consider
inadviscible and inflammatory character evidence, that the jury got incomplete
(32:24):
and incorrect instructions about how to consider psychological evidence, and
that the jury was exposed to the state's improper closing arguments.
The motion site seeking a new trial and the Interests
of Justice, saying the trial suffered from numerous errors. The
request for a new trial was denied in November of
(32:46):
twenty twenty three. So you may ask whereas Ezra now.
She is being held at the Techeetah Correctional Institute and
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Oh, fon du Lac.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
She'll at least be there for fifty years and then
she can petition.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Damn, that's a long ass time.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I mean, that really is. And that's like a you know,
they always say, like, you know, when you make a
dumb decision, it's a stupid short term just a choice
for a long you'll have long term problems if you
just deal with it and just be done with it.
Boom boom.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I'm always amazed too, like when people decide to kill
other people, like the stupid fucking reasons that they decide
to do it. And the best part is like they
don't they don't think it out. They don't they don't
think like, oh they're not they're gonna get caught. Like
there's nothing like you you can tell like she didn't
think this through.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
There's no long game.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I know, there's no longer game like she did long
Like this self defense is going to be believed and
you know and whatever or that she's going to be
found to be mentally incompetent. You know, one of these
two is going to carry her through. And you can't
do fucking shit like this nowadays. I mean you you know.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Just walk away your yourself will thank you a thousand
times over.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Like with all the forensics and everything that they study
now like the angle of the knife and where you
were standing in this bud blood splatter, they know exactly
like everything that happened. And it's just it floors me that.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
People, Yeah, watch an episode at Dexter, right, I was
just gonna say, like science there, science people science.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's amazing, like to me, like, you know, it's just
you know, now I don't I really don't think you
can really get away with killing people nowadays. And unless
you like totally murdered like a stranger. That's my that's
always been you know, like if I showed up in
like Idaho somewhere and murdered someone and then came right
home or something, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Like yes, like it's so yeah, very very random. But
to make it like you're in a relationship with somebody
and this is the best look. He's carved boy in
my left arm. See how I can see it?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yes, yeah, but I did it backwards like he oh no,
he carved it backwards.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
That's what I'm talking about. Details, details, exactly details. You're
not funny, but it's just so so over the top
to deal with your fucking just deal with them. Then
you still get to go on and be free. Yeah,
and every okay, everybody sheds a tear and then we
healed and we go on.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
So don't be a pretty comfortable situation. You just have
to deal with it. And you know, maybe she was immature,
you know, she's only twenty or whatever, but girl, really
this was this was your out, like this was your
grand scheme.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
This reminds me. Yeah, we ever see those pictures like
spider webs. I'll be like, oh, this web was built
by a spider who was drink alcohol, and it's just
like this is like the heroine crack cannabis web that
she's crazy. Girl, it's too much, you know, and to
come out like I don't know, but here, I'll give
(36:18):
you a name, you know, trying to throw them off.
The scent. She did that, but you know you can
get that from watching an episode of CSI, right, So,
but yeah, that's what I got for us this week.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
So thank you, Shannon, thanks for that. I appreciate it.
Thank you all for listening, and don't forget to hit
like or subscribe what you're listening to. And you can
go to our website if you'd like to listen there.
Shannon's got all the episodes.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Caught up, caught up and updated.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yes, I'm so excited. It's Crimes Andconsequences dot com. There's
also mr and we got to get the bios updated
because we gotta get her brow. Yeah, we're gonna we're
working on it.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
So I'm looking for some a nice wig and some
good lashes for the photo shoots. So I'm on the hunt.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
I'm on the hunty.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
We'll run it through AI.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
I'll look twenty five, you'll look twenty five. I'll look
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Fabulous my personality, that's the most precious anyway.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Course, all right, yes, so and with all of us,
but yes.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Anyway, thanks you guys for joining us. We love you,
I love you, and I love you.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Tanya I love you too, Shannon, and I'll see you
at our next episode.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I good Girlssy.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Hi everyone, Bye guys,
This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including
descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'm Tleah and we are
Crimes and Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I am doing great? How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I am doing pretty good myself. Just working on my list?
All right, your list, my list of I guess you
could say it's a bucket list. Very nice. I'd like
to accomplish. And I've just added becoming a pro billiards
player and a professional darks woman. I'd like to ace.
(00:59):
I would like Yeah, I like to rule the bar scene.
Oh and yeah billiards and darts.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, both the last ones.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Perfect.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
What about you?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
What are you working on? What self improvements are you
working on? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Girl, I'm just trying to get through the day. I mean, seriously, you.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Know with this that the time change makes it a
long week.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I wake up and I'm like, I can't believe it's
only seven forty eight. I feel like and in the morning,
I'm like, I don't know what to do. Do I
go back to bed or or doom scroll.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So what do you not for us today?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I have today story about missus Ezra mccandleist and her victim,
Alexander Sydney.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
All right, is this a love triangle?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yes, So we're wherever you're listening right now. You hit
subscribe and you can follow us from here to eternity,
and we're here for you. We'd love to have your
further ride, isn't that right?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
You'll get notifications if you follow.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Us, that's right. And we're working on our new logo
that's coming along just so beautifully and some new swag
is very exciting and for sure, for sure.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
We love you.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So well, let me get you started on this story, right.
I'm going to give you a little bit of background
on Alexander Lehman Sidney Alex Woodworth twenty four years old.
He was born on January first, nineteen ninety four in
Saint Path Paul's, Wisconsin, so he's a Capricorn. And then
(02:46):
I also did look up his zodiac Chinese signed browster.
It's a little sketchy around our New Years because their
New Year's sometimes is in February, so in the Year
of the Rooster. Now Alex's parents where John and Kimberley
Woodworth family lived in o Claire, Wisconsin, and Alex was
(03:09):
the oldest of four siblings, and he really enjoyed being
the big brother and his extracurricular hobbies and activities. He
loved reading, being at the coffee shop, and just helping
people in general. Alex cherished the time he spent with
his family and friends. So pretty cool guy, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Alex attended Ociola Ociola High School and he graduated in
twenty twelve, and then he went on to the University
of Wisconsin o'clare where he received his bachelor's degree in
philosophy and biology in the spring of twenty seventeen. So
(03:49):
that would be before the pandemic. That's the time line
of things.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yes, in post.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Panties and posts, this is three. He attended and graduated
the University of Oregon with intentions of graduating with his
master's degree in philosophy. Now we're going to meet Ezra.
Ezra Jane McCanless twenty. She was born October sixth, nineteen
ninety seven, in Stanley, Wisconsin, and she was born Monica
(04:22):
Kay to a mother. Her mom was only fourteen when
she had Ezra. Her name is Rosalina Gunlson. Ezra's biological
father was not part of her life. She was later
Monica Carlin after her mother's partner, Jesshane Carlin, adopted her
(04:42):
when she was four years old, and her mom and
her stepfather divorced when she was twelve, but she continued
to have a close relationship with her adoptive father, Jashane.
So Ezra later explained that she gave herself a new
name at the age of eighteen because she felt Ezra
was a better fit for her than Monica, and she
(05:04):
picked the last name McCandless in honor of the free
spirit Chris McCanless, whose life was memorialized in the book
and film called Into the Wild and Ezra. She lived
in Stanley, Wisconsin, and during high school, Ezra she decided
to try out different names and pronouns, you know, finding herself.
(05:28):
She dropped out of college and moved to Eau Claire
from Stanley, and she worked at the Stanley Boyd Area
School District. Now, Ezra was in a love triangle, well
sexually involved with two other men at the same time.
One man his name is John Hanson and the other
Jason Mangle. Ezra was very much more attracted to Jason Mongole.
(05:53):
They were on again, off again, and she'd wanted always
to go back. Ezra met Alex at a coffee shop
he worked as a barista, called Racy Delane's Coffee Lounge.
Ezra was in a relationship with Jason Mengel at the time,
and they all three became friends. Jason was a National
Guard medic and he told CBS News that Ezra was
(06:16):
going through an emotional time emotional things, and that Alex
was a really good friend, and he said, I kind
of pushed them together at one time because I knew
they both had similar viewpoints. He had some things in
his life that I figured she could help with, and
I thought he could help her with things in her life.
So Jason soon discovered that Ezra and Alex had developed
(06:40):
a romantic relationship. Ezra then ended her relationships with both
Alex and Jason, but then later attempted to rekindle her
relationship with Jason. So that's what it seems like. You know,
it's I'm with you, I'm not with you. I'm with
but I don't It doesn't sound like other people know
that they're only she does, right, you know. So in
(07:05):
mid February, when Jason was gone on two weeks of
National Guard duty, Ezra she moved back to her mom's
house in Stanley, and when Jason came back, he would
meet up with her at hotels. And during one of
the hotel stays, Jason read messages on Ezra's phone and
he found out about her relationship with Alex and John Hanson.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
We got to lock up that.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Vulgar oh boy, right who? Now she accused them of
sexual assault of John Hanson of sexual assault. So now
Jason he goes out, he confronts both men and where
the three men had a public argument at a coffee shop.
So Ezra's telling Jason one thing. Everybody's getting different stories
(07:51):
from Ezra. Now. Ezra blamed Alex for ending her relationship
with Jason. On February twenty fourth, twenty eighteen, Ezra sent
Alex attacks that told him not to ever talk to
her again. Ezra then sent Jason journals in which she
expressed how such she was for betraying him. Can you
(08:12):
imagine that, Tanya you like getting back? Let me show
you my journal entries on how tore up I was
for betraying you. So this is proof you got to
take me back.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You got to take me back because I really was upset.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Read it. These are my journals cheering. This is authentic.
So Ezra had moved from eu Claire to Stanley, but
had showed up in Eclaire to surprise Jason. She met
him at the coffee shop where he worked, and then
she told him she wanted to show Alex some of
her writings. Jason and Ezra had messaged each other six
(08:53):
hundred times the night before she came into town, and
Jason claimed that as had been emotionally down, and she
told him that that day that she planned to take
her life back and she was going to be Ezra again. Well,
Jason became suspicious and he tracked down Ezra to Alex's house,
(09:16):
where he confronted them both about the nature of their relationship.
Then the three went their separate ways, and I'll tell
you but Ezra shows up to the Simple House three
hours later from this meeting. Now, Ezra allegedly planned to
speak with Alex to have him admit that their affair
was a mistake, which would help her get Jason back.
(09:38):
A police officer arrives to Alex's house after a passerby
called police to report that Jason was standing outside pacing
looking very suspicious. For about forty five minutes, one officer
spoke with Alex, and another spoke with Jason, and another
spoke with Ezra, who was waiting in the front seat
of her car. Jason I told the officer that he
(10:01):
was concerned about Ezra because if she gave me a
vibe today, man, I don't know. It doesn't feel right.
Something feels wrong. The bobser concluded that everything seems normal
and then they leave. Now, Ezra, she found out she
was pregnant and early fall of twenty seventeen, with Jason's child,
she drove to Minneapolis to have an abortion, and not
(10:24):
long after the abortion, Ezra began her secret relationship with Alex.
And Ezra's previous relationship had deteriorated after she decided to
terminate her pregnancy, and she claimed that she was young, confused,
and felt rushed into the abortion. She said the decision
(10:45):
left her empty and hurt emotionally and physically, and she
claimed that she ended the relationship with Jason and the
relationship with Alex was just within a few weeks of
that breakup. Okay, so now it's March twenty second, twenty eighteen,
and around four fifteen pm on that day, the dun
(11:06):
County Sheriff Office received a call from Don Sipple that
a young woman had arrived on foot at his house
in the east seventy six hundred block of fortieth Avenue
in the town of Springbrook. Sypple reported that the woman
was bloody, barefoot, and muddy. A deputy responded with the
Wisconsin State trooper and the woman was later identified as
(11:29):
Ezra McCanless now. The deputy found Ezra's hair to be
disheveled and noted blood around her mouth, on her knuckles,
her left arm, and upper right thigh visible through a
hole in her pants. She appeared to be very upset
and crying, but the deputy said he didn't see any
visible tears. Little asterisk. Ezra was not able to provide
(11:53):
her name or address when asked by the trooper. She
did give the name of Jason Mangle of Oak Cleay Is,
someone to contact on her behalf. Ezra was taken by
ambulance to the mail clinic in Eau Claire, which was
followed by a dun County deputy, and at the hospital,
the deputy could see the word boy cut into Ezra's
(12:15):
left arm. Ezra claimed that Alex attacked her and after
the attack she carved the word boy onto her arm.
That this is going to flip flop back and forth
this story. While at the hospital, the deputy also learned
that Ezra had changed her name from Monica Carlin in
twenty fifteen. Ezra initially claimed that Alex attacked her in
(12:40):
retaliation after she stopped identifying as a man, which was
an identity that she said Alex preferred. Ezra claimed this
is what prompted Alex to carve the word boy in
her arm, but then later confessed to marking herself.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Okay, so she so, Ezra identified as a man at
one point and Alex really liked that, and now that
she identifies as a girl, he carved the word boy
in her.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Arm in a spiteful way.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yes, okay, okay, after the.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Attack, Yes, on her left arm.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Now. She said that in high school she had often
questioned her gender. Ezra told detectives that Alex had picked
up on that and he used to call me like
boy a lot and just say stuff like that. But
I don't really identify that way anymore. That's what. Yeah,
her thing is that he would call her a boy
(13:41):
or however she identified as in changing. That was very upsetting.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
So what happened.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
The doctor who examined Ezra on March twenty second noted
that the angle of the wounds indicated that they could
be self inflicted, and the letters carved in her left
arm were orientated for her to look at. Ezra. I
was like, oh, I'm also a right hander.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You're a lustee, yes, you know, so harving up my
right arm, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
In a way that you could see. Yeah, Like now
see that gives me a new perspective. I'm like, Wow,
if I really wanted to sell it, you got to
do backwards, yeah, or backwards or.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Just yeah in the mirror something.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I think that's diabolically clever to have that much planning.
But she did it. She had it, Yes, she had
it to where you could easily see it for her.
So Ezra admitted to the hospital staff that she had
self harm in the past. Then, while being treated at
the hospital, Ezra was interviewed by detectives. Investigators at the
(14:48):
scene realized that Alex was missing and contacted his family.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Oh well yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The dun County deputy reached out to the Eau Claire
Police Department for help finding Jason Mengele, and an officer
said earlier that day, around twelve thirty pm, police made
contact with Ezra, Jason, and Alex remember in the driveway
of Alex's home. So, when asked what happened that day,
(15:15):
Ezra admitted that she was at Alex's house and left
to go to Owen Park in the city, where she
claimed that Alex allegedly attacked her and cut boy into
her arm. Now, in an interview review of cameras in
the area, the officer could find no evidence of Ezra's
car coming or going from the park, noting that the
(15:35):
alleged assault took place near a busy intersection with lots
of vehicles in pedestrian traffic. So at this point an
investigator took over the investigation and observed that a significant
amount of time had taken place between the time Ezra
was found at the Sivil residence and the last time
(15:57):
she was seen with Alex. For his safety, an unsuccessful
search for Alex was initiated by the city and the
County of Eau Claire. On March twenty third, twenty eighteen,
around three pm, the investigators went to Sipples home to
interview on a second time, and as they drove up,
(16:18):
they noticed a mud covered road leading off to the
south of four hundred and thirtieth Avenue, about a forty
acre parcel east of the Sipple home. One of the
investigators returned to the dirt road and found a single
set of bare footprints in the mud that lacked the
ridge detail found in a shoe pattern. He also observed
(16:39):
tire tracks leading up to the muddy road. Now walking
up the side of the road, the detectives located a
two thousand and three Chevy and pala with license plate
that later confirmed it as Ezra's car. The car also
had multiple colorful drawings on the exterior. The driver's side
rear door was standing open and clothing could be seen
(17:01):
lying on the ground outside, so the detectives could see
that what appeared to be the head and upper body
of a person lying partly outside the door. With blood
around the car and no signs of life, it was
clear the person was deceased. Once they confirmed that there
were no other victims in the scene, the detectives backed
(17:24):
out of the area to preserve the crime scene, and
they called the dun County Sheriff's office to complete the investigation,
and the body was identified as Alex Woodworth and he
was taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office the
following day, March twenty fourth, for his autopsy examination. According
(17:45):
to the autopsy report, the cause of death was multiple
sharp force injuries sixteen total and the manner of death
was homicide and a scarf was found around Alex's neck
in a parent attempt to stop his bleeding. H Now,
March twenty fourth, Ezra McCanless was interviewed by investigators and
(18:06):
she told them she drove to Alex's house to return
some things to him, and she said they wanted to
talk with each other and decided to go to a
public place. Initially, she was in the driver's seat with
Alex in the passenger seat, and then Ezra became anxious
and had Alex drive instead. So Ezra claimed that they
(18:28):
ended up on a dirt road on that four hundred
and thirtieth Avenue in Springbrook in dun County, where they
got stuck in the mud and she alleged that Alex
attacked her in the vehicle and carved the word boy
in her arm. Ezra claimed that she had betrayed Alex
and he attempted to rape her with a knife in
(18:48):
the back seat of the car. She said he cut
her clothes off with the knife, but Ezra them meet
him in the groin and then grabbing the blade side
of the knife. She said she was able to take
the blade from Alex and admitted to stabbing him anywhere
and everywhere now. The knife involved in the incident had
(19:09):
been in the trunk of Ezra's car. Ezra had been
working for her father's tree service, and the knife was
constantly being put in and taken out of the vehicle.
Ezra later testified that her father said the knife could
be used to break glass or to cut a seatbelt.
She also stated that her father also thought she should
(19:29):
be prepared for anything if she encountered a situation where
she was in danger and she needed to do anything
to get away.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So it was why she got this knife in her car.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
It's always on the ready, exactly. So. Ezra believed that
she stabbed Alex in the Genitalia area bya's leigh. The stomach,
neck back by the ribs inside of his head. She
did not respond when asked how the word boy got
put onto her arm, but latermitted she put it there
(20:00):
after she stabbed Alex. So, if you're gonna change.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Her story again, if you're gonna.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Use you know, you're going to plant some evidence that
has gotta be a solid ass story, right, never changes, ever,
not ever. And then it feels, yeah, it is so
waterproof air for air tights.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
She's all over the place.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, I did it. He did it. Now she's arrested.
Ezra McCanless was suspected in Alex's death and was in
custody at the dun County Jail scheduled to attend a
bond hearing on March twenty eighth of twenty eighteen on
the charge of first degree intentional homicide, and according to
(20:43):
dun County District Attorney Andrea Nadell, Ezra McCandless confessed to
killing Alex after being interviewed by investigators from dun County
and the Eau Claire Police Department, and a cash bond
of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was set for
Ezra in Dune County attorney Nodall asked that a bond
(21:03):
of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars be set, in
amount that Ezra's attorney called ridiculous in light of what
he called a lack of evidence and the fact that
Ezra had no prior record. Ezra's defense attorney asked that
she be released on co signature bond with her mother now.
Judge Smeltzer noticed that there had been an extensive investigation
(21:26):
and found probable cause that Ezra had committed the crime,
and he set the bond to two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, with the condition that she neither leave Done
County or Chippewa County. So the preliminary hearing that's going
to be on Wednesday, the twenty fifth, the Dunn County
(21:47):
Judge James Peterson found probable cause that Ezra committed first
degree intentional homicide using a dangerous weapon and bound her
over for trial. He stated that based on Ezra's mental
state and statements that she made during her initial court
appearance on the sixth April sixth, he had questions about
(22:08):
whether she was competent to stand for trial, and he
ordered that she undergo a competency evaluation now May twenty second,
twenty eighteen the competency hearing. A status conference was held
on that day, where Judge Peterson announced that, according to
the evaluation report from the clinical psychologists and a consultant
(22:30):
with the Wisconsin Forensic Unit, Ezra was mentally fit to
stand trial on charges of first degree intentional homicide and
use of a deadly weapon. In a letter to the
Judge James Peterson, Ezra's defense attorney stated that she wanted
to change her plea from not guilty to not guilty
by reason of mental disease or defect. This change in
(22:53):
plea occurred even after Ezra had already passed all of
her mental evaluations. So the hearing, Yeah, it's like, wow,
didn't you guys get this paperwork? Hi?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
You got the connectioncy evaluation?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I doubt I would a judge look at that. You think, well,
you're the judge and you're.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Like, what is this flying?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Soay right, and the prosecutor is going to bring that
exam into the trial. So what the jury's going to say?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Thank you? Yeah? Now, December third, that's the hearing. And
during the court hearing, Judge Peterson denied motions to suppress
audio recordings of Ezra's interview with authorities, determining that her
March twenty third interview with detectives was voluntary and not
an interrogation. The March twenty fourth interview with investigators was
(23:50):
deemed to be an interrogation, but Ezra was able to
leave it anytime. So now Ezra's trial was set to
begin April second, Toy nineteen. She withdrew her plea of
not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. On
February sixth, in a court hearing, Ezra's defense attorney stated
(24:12):
that he expects her to testify at her trial. In April.
Ezra told multiple people that she was assaulted by two
people as a child, by a man in twenty seventeen
and by another man in twenty eighteen, just one month
before Alex was stabbed. Now supposedly, Ezra told Jason that
(24:33):
one of his friends raped her in twenty seventeen. Jason
went to the Oak Claire Police Department, who investigated the
claim but did not charge the man. The Oak Claire
Police Department investigated the twenty eighteen assault allegation against one
of the men The man's lawyer said that if called
as a witness in the trial, the man will invoke
(24:56):
his right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions.
The report filed against this man was false and was
an attempt to cover up a consensual sexual relationship with
a different man. Wow, sounds familiar. That's her game.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah right, you know she's got.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
One of them as the fall guy. Someone's going to
be the fall guy.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
So the sexually graphic text messages between Ezra and the
man accused of the assault proved that the encounter was consensual.
The prosecutors alleged that Ezra was sexually involved with three
minutes a time. In February of twenty eighteen, Ezra was
struggling with guilt, regret, gender identity, a move from Eau
(25:41):
Claire to Stanley. According to prosecutors, they want to introduce
the assault report, Ezra's journal, and several of Ezra's text
messages as evidence, claiming that these materials are highly relevant
to playing contexts and motive and intent. Now, ezra defense
attorney stated that Ezra's sexual history and prior sexual assaults
(26:05):
are not relevant to whether she intended to kill Alex
or if she did, whether she was acting in self defense.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I think she's full of shit.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I do too, but I'd like this. The defense attorney like,
how is her previous sexual history about well, unless well,
obviously it's her game plan. So you know, it's like
she she's got a fall guy. Because this is what
happened before. There's a pattern developing your people. The trial
(26:39):
began on October fourteenth, twenty nineteen, in dun County. It
was supposed to be April second, but it got moved
to later in the year October due to the defense
receiving over twelve hundred pages of possible evidence from Alex's
computer and letters written by Ezra while in jail. Yeah right.
(27:00):
The Assistant Attorney General Richard dufour and dun County District
Attorney Andrea n Adult state that Ezra intentionally lord Alex
to dun County to murder him to rid herself of
guilt and regret surrounding her situation.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
The defense, she wanted to be with Jason, right, she.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Wants to be with Jason, and but then she gets
pregnant by Jason. Sounds she's very confused. Yeah, you know,
just her own sexual identity. Then she's, you know, got
this taxic kind of draw magnetism to Jason. She gets pregnant,
then she has an abortion so she can pursue Alex.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Right, just the but yeah, there's Jameson's right.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
She did it to like get rid of Alex, like for.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Feeling bad about the situation with her ad Jason. Maybe
it sounds like how she's unable to keep shit straight,
but she feels great guilt about what she may or
may not have inflicted and you know a lot of
mental stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Maybe right, maybe.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Maybe, But the defense now their case, Ezra's defense attorney
said that Alex took violent and aggressive acts against Ezra
in the back seat of a vehicle that was stuck
in the mud in a secluded rural area, a total
self defense. That was the case now. The evidence drawings
(28:24):
of knives and several of Alex's journals were considered crucial
evidence in the case. The drawings were of a similar
knife to what was used in the stabbing, which makes
the drawings highly relevant to motive and intent to kill
Alexander Woodworth. Noo said there is no evidence that suggests
that Ezra was the artist of the drawings, only that
(28:47):
the drawings were found with her belongings. Now, yeah, yeah,
it's your journal, but these might not be your doodles.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
You might yeah, you might not have doodle in it.
Oh noof somebody else is drawing knives in your journal.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Oh yeah, your private thoughts?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Is that my journal?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Ezra's defense team wanted over one hundred pages of Alex's
journals and writings allowed into evidence. The journals had many
references to cannibalism and some to death and suicide, according
to the court documents. Ezra's defense team argued that she
knew the contents of the journals, which prompted her to
fight back when he attacked her. Now, prosecutors claim that
(29:32):
Alex's references to cannibalism, death, and suicide were metaphors since
he was a philosophy student that tended to teach philosophy someday, Okay,
that doesn't make sense because I forgot how educated he
is too.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Don't know, because I'm thinking, like, oh, she knows he
writes about cannibalism, so she's afraid, like he's going to
kill her an eater or something like.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, it's like poetry, you know, high coups. Yeah, exactly.
Ezra testified that she stabbed Alex because quote, I was
afraid he was going to kill me unquote. She testified
that she went to a nearby house for help, but
did not mention that she had stabbed Alex and he
(30:16):
was in the car. She also did not tell responding
officers an emergency personnel about stabbing Alex either. A forensic
scientist called to testify stated that Alex had more than
likely lived up to thirty minutes after being stabbed. None
of his wounds right, none of his wounds were immediately
life threatening or to the spinal cord.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
How horrible is It's really sad, like he just bled
out and you know what, probably could have danger, yeah,
and for help and told somebody in the ambulance came.
They might have been able to save him.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yes, thirty minutes are for sure. The verdict came in
on November first, twenty nineteen. Ezrael was found guilty a
first degree intentional homicide in the death of Alex. The
jury deliberated for three hours and seventeen minutes.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
That's nothing.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
That is that's probably a bad sign if you're wanting
to get off huh. Oh.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
It is, for sure. The longer they're deliberating, the better
it is.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I've always had her chances, I bet. Yeah. Sence, the
sentence thing was on Friday, February seventh, twenty twenty. Oh, right,
right before the pani before. Yes, yes, the month before.
Oh my goodness, so yeah, months before the pandemic began.
February seven, twenty twenty, Ezra was sentenced to life in prison,
(31:41):
with the possibility to petition for extended supervision after fifty years. Jeez.
So yeah, now, God, my goodness, that's the young You're
in your seventies. I'd have to kind of scroll back
and I can't remember her age twenties, said she was
twenty yeah, yes, twenty wow. In December of twenty twenty two,
(32:03):
Ezra's attorneys filed emotion to vacate the conviction and order
a new trial. The nearly eighty page motion cites ineffective
assistance of council, that the jury was able to consider
inadviscible and inflammatory character evidence, that the jury got incomplete
(32:24):
and incorrect instructions about how to consider psychological evidence, and
that the jury was exposed to the state's improper closing arguments.
The motion site seeking a new trial and the Interests
of Justice, saying the trial suffered from numerous errors. The
request for a new trial was denied in November of
(32:46):
twenty twenty three. So you may ask whereas Ezra now.
She is being held at the Techeetah Correctional Institute and
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Oh, fon du Lac.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
She'll at least be there for fifty years and then
she can petition.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Damn, that's a long ass time.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I mean, that really is. And that's like a you know,
they always say, like, you know, when you make a
dumb decision, it's a stupid short term just a choice
for a long you'll have long term problems if you
just deal with it and just be done with it.
Boom boom.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I'm always amazed too, like when people decide to kill
other people, like the stupid fucking reasons that they decide
to do it. And the best part is like they
don't they don't think it out. They don't they don't
think like, oh they're not they're gonna get caught. Like
there's nothing like you you can tell like she didn't
think this through.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
There's no long game.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I know, there's no longer game like she did long
Like this self defense is going to be believed and
you know and whatever or that she's going to be
found to be mentally incompetent. You know, one of these
two is going to carry her through. And you can't
do fucking shit like this nowadays. I mean you you know.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Just walk away your yourself will thank you a thousand
times over.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Like with all the forensics and everything that they study
now like the angle of the knife and where you
were standing in this bud blood splatter, they know exactly
like everything that happened. And it's just it floors me that.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
People, Yeah, watch an episode at Dexter, right, I was
just gonna say, like science there, science people science.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's amazing, like to me, like, you know, it's just
you know, now I don't I really don't think you
can really get away with killing people nowadays. And unless
you like totally murdered like a stranger. That's my that's
always been you know, like if I showed up in
like Idaho somewhere and murdered someone and then came right
home or something, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Like yes, like it's so yeah, very very random. But
to make it like you're in a relationship with somebody
and this is the best look. He's carved boy in
my left arm. See how I can see it?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yes, yeah, but I did it backwards like he oh no,
he carved it backwards.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
That's what I'm talking about. Details, details, exactly details. You're
not funny, but it's just so so over the top
to deal with your fucking just deal with them. Then
you still get to go on and be free. Yeah,
and every okay, everybody sheds a tear and then we
healed and we go on.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
So don't be a pretty comfortable situation. You just have
to deal with it. And you know, maybe she was immature,
you know, she's only twenty or whatever, but girl, really
this was this was your out, like this was your
grand scheme.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
This reminds me. Yeah, we ever see those pictures like
spider webs. I'll be like, oh, this web was built
by a spider who was drink alcohol, and it's just
like this is like the heroine crack cannabis web that
she's crazy. Girl, it's too much, you know, and to
come out like I don't know, but here, I'll give
(36:18):
you a name, you know, trying to throw them off.
The scent. She did that, but you know you can
get that from watching an episode of CSI, right, So,
but yeah, that's what I got for us this week.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
So thank you, Shannon, thanks for that. I appreciate it.
Thank you all for listening, and don't forget to hit
like or subscribe what you're listening to. And you can
go to our website if you'd like to listen there.
Shannon's got all the episodes.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Caught up, caught up and updated.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yes, I'm so excited. It's Crimes Andconsequences dot com. There's
also mr and we got to get the bios updated
because we gotta get her brow. Yeah, we're gonna we're
working on it.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
So I'm looking for some a nice wig and some
good lashes for the photo shoots. So I'm on the hunt.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
I'm on the hunty.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
We'll run it through AI.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
I'll look twenty five, you'll look twenty five. I'll look
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Fabulous my personality, that's the most precious anyway.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Course, all right, yes, so and with all of us,
but yes.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Anyway, thanks you guys for joining us. We love you,
I love you, and I love you.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Tanya I love you too, Shannon, and I'll see you
at our next episode.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I good Girlssy.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Hi everyone, Bye guys,
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.