UPDATE June 27, 2014 10:00 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)-- A Wakulla County jury has recommended a life sentence for Andrew Wilson.
The same jury a week before convicted Wilson for the March 2011 stabbing deaths of John McKenzie, Patrick Pittman and the attempted murder of his then estranged girlfriend Gabrielle McKenzie.
The jury recommended to Wakulla Circuit Judge Charles Dodson that Wilson be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The state was seeking the death penalty in the case.
While our media partners at the Tallahassee Democrat report that judges typically follow jury recommendations in such cases, it could be anywhere from 15 to 90 days before Judge Dodson makes his final sentencing decision.
Read more below for additional content from the trial.
UPDATE (June 27, 2014 - 8:29 A.M.)
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (WTXL) -- The jury seated in the Andrew Wilson case is scheduled to return to court Friday morning to begin deliberating their sentence recommendation.
The same 14-person jury convicted Wilson on June 20 for the March 2011 murders of Patrick Pittman, John McKenzie and the attempted murder of John's daughter Gabrielle.
Gabrielle and Andrew Wilson had ended a relationship prior to the murders and shared a young son.
Wilson is now facing either the death penalty or life in prison. Ultimately it will be up to the judge to decide final sentencing.
UPDATE (June 22, 2014 – 3:34 P.M.)
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (WTXL) – The penalty phase of the Andrew Wilson trial will get underway Monday morning at the Wakulla County Courthouse.
Just before the weekend, on June 20, a jury found Andrew Wilson guilty in the March 2011 murders of John McKenzie, Patrick Pittman and the attempted murder of Gabrielle McKenzie.
READ MORE below from the court proceedings and testimony.
Monday, June23, the jury will be called in again to begin the penalty phase part of the case. They will hear presentations and further testimony.
The jury will have to then provide a sentencing recommendation to Judge Charles Dodson of either life in prison or the death penalty. Ultimately the final sentencing decision will be up to Judge Dodson.
UPDATE (June 20, 2014 – 10:00 P.M.)
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (WTXL) – Andrew Wilson has been found guilty on charges that he murdered John McKenzie, Pittman and the attempted murder of Gabrielle McKenzie.
It took the Wakulla County jury nearly four hours of deliberation to reach the verdict.
Beginning Monday, attorneys on both side will present further presentations to the jury who will have to decide whether to give Judge Charles Dodson a recommendation of sentencing Wilson to the dead penalty or life in prison.
UPDATE (June 20, 2014 - 5:15 A.M.)
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (WTXL) -- Both sides have rested their case in the Andrew Wilson murder trial.
Closing arguments and jury deliberation are expected to begin Friday morning.
UPDATE (June 18, 2014 - 6:02 P.M.)
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (WTXL) – The Wakulla County jury in the Andrew Wilson murder trial is now preparing for their second full day of testimony on Thursday.
Wilson is facing the death penalty if convicted in the case.
Prosecutors say on March 30, 2011 Wilson went to a mobile home located at 87 Field Loop Drive. That is where he is accused of using a knife to attack his then estranged girlfriend, Gabrielle McKenzie, her then new boyfriend Patrick Pittman and her father John McKenzie.
Wednesday, the 14-member jury heard from Gabrielle, the lone survivor in the attack.
During her testimony, Gabrielle McKenzie showed jurors her scars from the attack, showing them where Wilson stabbed her on various parts of her body, including her throat, back, face, hands, chest and shoulder.
She also described for jurors her relationship with Andrew Wilson, which she says began as a loving relationship. McKenzie says Wilson then became possessive of her once she became pregnant.
In February of 2011, just one month before the murders, Gabrielle McKenzie got a domestic injunction order against Wilson for herself and the couple’s young son.
While Gabrielle McKenzie told the court that Wilson had never physically abused her, she did say he had threatened her in the past. At one point telling her that he would slit the throat of anyone she cheated on him with.
She also described her relationship with her father, victim John McKenzie. She says she and her father were “best friends” and would talk several times a day. A daughter-father relationship that McKenzie says Wilson “didn’t care for” and developed a “tense” attitude towards.
During opening arguments Assistant State Attorney Jon Fuchs began to lay out his case.
”You will hear about Gabrielle’s worst nightmare and horror show,” Fuchs said.
Fuchs told jurors that on the early morning of March 30, 2011 that Wilson left a friend’s house and eventually traveled to Gabrielle McKenzie’s father mobile home, where she was staying, located at 87 Field Loop Drive.
”He stopped for plastic bags and electrical tape to cover his feet to cover his footprints,” Fuchs said.
Fuchs says Wilson deliberately took a longer route into the neighborhood to avoid being scene. Fuchs says Wilson then wrapped his shoes with plastic bags and electric tape, and wearing all black, snuck through a wooded area towards the home. Knowing a spare key was hidden in a birdhouse, Fuchs says Wilson took the key and unlocked the front door.
He continued, telling jurors that once inside he first saw Patrick Pittman sleeping on a couch in the living room.
“He (Wilson) didn’t immediately start stabbing him (Pittman),” Fuchs said. “He (Wilson) stood over him (Pittman), contemplating what he was about to do. Wilson then covered Pittman’s mouth and slit his throat.”
It was the “loud noise” of the attack on Pittman that Gabrielle McKenzie testified that woke her up from a sleep in a backroom. As she went into the hallway she testified she saw Wilson who then turned his focus and attack on her.
As Wilson was stabbing Gabrielle McKenzie, deputies testified that Pittman managed to crawl to a phone and call for help.
That first 911 call made by Pittman was played for jurors. He can be heard on the call telling dispatchers “I’m dieing…Andy Wilson is trying to kill me.”
Loud screams and crying can be heard on the call as prosecutors say Wilson then went to again attack Pittman, eventually stabbing him 47 times, including at least once in the skull.
It is near this point, prosecutors say, that Gabrielle’s father, John, emerged from a backroom and was also attacked by Wilson. He was eventually stabbed 17 times.
Lieutenant Ronald Mitchell of the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office was among the first on the scene. He testified about what deputies saw as they arrived on scene.
”I can’t describe to you what I saw…it was horrific at best. That’s my personal opinion,” Lt. Mitchell said.
When deputies first arrived they could hear, they say, the loud screaming of a small child and a loud television. As they approached the front door, with guns drawn, they first encountered a small child, later identified as Gabrielle’s young son, covered in blood.
They rushed him away to safety. During a sweep of the home deputies first saw the bloodied bodies of Patrick Pittman and Gabrielle McKenzie. Lieutenant Mitchell testified at this point only Gabrielle McKenzie was conscious. Her father, John’s, body was found moments later in a back office room.
Jurors were also shown approximately 17 graphic photos taken from the crime scene.
Prosecutors also described Wilson eventual escape saying he made it Stewart County, Georgia where Wilson crashed his truck into the front lawn of a home owned by a local deputy. Fuchs says Wilson quickly admitted to that deputy to having “murdered three people in Florida”.
Fuchs says a knife found on the scene “had a mix of blood of Gabrielle’s, John’s and Patrick’s.”
Jurors on Wednesday also heard portions of a second 911 call. A call made by Gabrielle McKenzie just before deputies arrived. A call filled again with more yelling and screaming, an audio description of Gabrielle’s “nightmare” Fuchs described.
Wilson attorney, Andy Thomas, says Wilson acted with a “depraved mind” saying that the “911 call is compelling, but evidence of a depraved mind.”
Thomas also told jurors that the evidence in the case is circumstantial and left open to interpretation.
”Evidence will not rule out room of conscious or emotion,” Thomas said. “Pre meditation requires reflection and conscious mind.”
Thomas denies Wilson had either.
Wilson is facing five total charges including two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. If convicted he could face either the death penalty or life in prison.
CRAWFORDVILLE, FL (WTXL) -- Opening arguments have begun in the murder trial for Andrew Michael Wilson.
He's facing five charges in connection with the March 2011 murder of John Robert McKenzie, Patrick Lee Pittman and the attempted murder of Gabrielle McKenzie.
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For Live Tweets from the trial follow #WTXLTrial
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If convicted Wilson could get the death penalty.
Prosecutors say on March 30, 2011 Andrew Wilson went to the home shared by his estranged girlfriend, Gabrielle McKenzie. The pair also shared a young child.
Proseuctors say Wilson gained entry into the home using a key he knew that was hidden. Once inside of the home, located at 87 Field Loop Drive in Crawfordville, investigators say Wilson stabbed Gabrielle McKenzie, her father John McKenzie, and her then-boyfriend Patrick Pittman.
Gabrielle was the only one to survive what investigators called a brutal attack.
According to the Probable Cause report, Wilson was eventually arrested in Stewart County, Georgia, near Columbus, after crashing his truck in the lawn in front of a home belonging to a local sheriff's deputy.
CRAWFORDVILLE, FL (WTXL) -- A Wakulla County grand jury met to decide the fate of murderer Andrew Wilson.
During the proceedings, the defense claimed he is bi-polar and suffered from childhood trauma. Gabrielle McKenzie, a victim, testified on the nature of her relationship with Wilson.
After hearing testimonies all day, the court has not reached a decision. The grand jury will resume June, 24th 2014 at 8:45 a.m.
The jury is to decide whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison.
