THE DARK SIDE OF IOWA
Oscar Ibarra
#6213585
photo courtesy Write A Prisoner
Full Name: Oscar Ibarra
DOB: November 27, 1991
Charge: 1st degree murder
County: Polk
City: Des Moines
Current Status: Iowa State Penitentiary
Date of Crime: April 9, 2011
Tentative Discharge Date: Life
Victim: Patrick Wilson
DOB: November 27, 1991
Charge: 1st degree murder
County: Polk
City: Des Moines
Current Status: Iowa State Penitentiary
Date of Crime: April 9, 2011
Tentative Discharge Date: Life
Victim: Patrick Wilson
At about 3:30 AM on April 9, 2011, Riley Wilson, age thirteen, looked out his window and saw someone crouching by his father’s truck. Riley went outside and again saw the man crouched beside the truck. Riley’s father, Patrick Wilson, came outside, and Riley told him he had seen someone. Patrick went around the house once but did not see anyone. Riley told him the person was beside the truck, and Patrick walked over to the truck telling Riley to stay where he was. Patrick saw that “right when he gets to the side of the truck, the man pops out at him.” Patrick yelled and then told Riley to call the police. Riley saw the man “come out at him, like, in a hitting – like he was getting ready to hit him, in that kind of position.” Riley ran inside the house and told his mother that “my dad is getting beat up.” When Patrick’s wife, Christy, ran outside, she saw someone standing over her husband.
John Brooks, who lived nearby, was awakened by the sound of Patrick’s yelling. He went outside and heard Patrick telling Riley to call the police. As he ran toward Patrick’s yard, John heard Patrick say, “Stop. I’ve got kids. I’ve got children. Stop. I’ve got children. Ow. Help.” John yelled, “Oscar, stop,” and he saw Oscar Ibarra strike Patrick two more times. Oscar then ran away.
John started to pursue Oscar but turned back when he heard someone scream, “No, Pat, no.” He ran to where Patrick was lying and noted that Patrick had lost a lot of blood. John lifted up Patrick’s shirt and saw “gash upon gash and deep-seated purple wounds, and …I knew it wasn’t good.”
Police were alerted to the Wilson’s house at 3:53 AM. When emergency personnel arrived at the scene, they found that Patrick had no pulse and was not breathing. Despite their efforts to revive him, Patrick’s heart had no electrical activity when he reached the hospital.
John Brooks, who lived nearby, was awakened by the sound of Patrick’s yelling. He went outside and heard Patrick telling Riley to call the police. As he ran toward Patrick’s yard, John heard Patrick say, “Stop. I’ve got kids. I’ve got children. Stop. I’ve got children. Ow. Help.” John yelled, “Oscar, stop,” and he saw Oscar Ibarra strike Patrick two more times. Oscar then ran away.
John started to pursue Oscar but turned back when he heard someone scream, “No, Pat, no.” He ran to where Patrick was lying and noted that Patrick had lost a lot of blood. John lifted up Patrick’s shirt and saw “gash upon gash and deep-seated purple wounds, and …I knew it wasn’t good.”
Police were alerted to the Wilson’s house at 3:53 AM. When emergency personnel arrived at the scene, they found that Patrick had no pulse and was not breathing. Despite their efforts to revive him, Patrick’s heart had no electrical activity when he reached the hospital.
Patrick Wilson, courtesy Des Moines Register
At trial, testimony spent the day of April 8, 2011, “hanging out” and shopping at a mall with friends. At one point during the day, Oscar showed Cody Brown a Smith and Wesson knife that he had. Cody put the knife in his pocket and forgot about it. Later in the day, Oscar, Cody, Alyssa Ameneiro, Amanda Mills, and Arin Wilson (Patrick’s daughter), all underage, decided to go to a bar – the Komodo Klub – and try to get in using false ID’s. They went to Alyssa’s house to get ready for the evening and started drinking vodka. They then drove to the Komodo Klub in Arin’s car, drinking vodka on the way. When they arrived at the Komodo Klub after 10 PM, Arin gained entry, Alyssa was turned away, and the others decided not to try.
After taking Amanda home around 12:30 AM, Oscar, Cody and Alyssa went in Arin’s car, with Alyssa driving, to Nick Vasey’s dorm room. There, they drank tequila. Oscar and Alyssa were arguing, and Nick asked them to leave. Oscar, Alyssa, and Cody left in Arin’s car. Alyssa was driving, though she testified she was “really drunk” and did not remember much of the drive only that she and Oscar were later parked in a Hy-Vee parking lot with the windshield broken, and Alyssa stated, “Look what you did to the windshield.”
Cody testified that after leaving Nick’s room, Alyssa stopped the car in the middle of the street arguing with Oscar. Oscar got out saying he was going to walk. Cody told Alyssa he would drive because she was intoxicated. Oscar returned to the car saying he was sorry. Alyssa was crying. Cody got out of the car to go around to the driver’s seat, and Oscar yelled, “Go, go, go.” Alyssa and Oscar drove off, leaving Cody in the street. Cody called Oscar to ask why they had left him, and Oscar told him Alyssa left Oscar as well. According to Cody, Oscar said he had punched out the windshield of the car because Alyssa refused to go back and pick up Cody. On cross-examination, however, Cody was asked if Alyssa left because Cody was angry that she was not moving the car, and Cody punched the windshield. Cody responded, “That I don’t remember.”
Cody walked to Arin’s house, which was about four blocks away. When Cody arrived at Patrick’s house, he heard music and Patrick singing in the garage. Cody knocked on the door to the garage. Patrick let him in, and the two smoked marijuana. Cody told Patrick that Arin was at the club, Alyssa was drunk and driving Arin’s car, Oscar had hit Alyssa, and Oscar broke Arin’s car’s windshield. Cody acknowledged he told Patrick that Oscar had hit Alyssa because he “knew that would be something that would get [Patrick] stirred up.”
Patrick called Arin and told her to call Alyssa and have her get the car to Patrick’s house. He also called his 21-year-old son, Andrew, and told him that Cody needed a ride. Oscar and Alyssa arrived at Patrick’s house, where Oscar asked to talk with Cody.
Cody told Oscar he was angry about being left to walk, he did not want to talk to Oscar “because [Oscar] was real drunk,” and told Oscar to leave. Patrick then told Oscar to leave. Oscar did leave. Both Patrick and Cody called his son Andrew again; Patrick told him he needed to get his friends out of there.
Andrew arrived at the house after 3:00 AM and arranged for Cody to ride with him in his Jeep and for Alyssa to take Arin’s car to pick up Arin. As Andrew and Cody started to get into the Jeep, Oscar came out from behind a fence and got into Arin’s car with Alyssa. Andrew approached the car, opened the door, and told Oscar he had five seconds to leave or Andrew was “going to beat his ass.” Oscar got out of the car and stood in front of Andrew and Cody. Andrew started counting down from five and Oscar left. Alyssa then left in Arin’s car, and Andrew and Cody left in Andrew’s Jeep.
Later, Cody and Andrew were driving around downtown when Andrew got a call that his father had been stabbed. When they arrived at Patrick’s house and learned of Patrick’s stabbing, Cody dropped the knife Oscar had given him because there was a warrant out for Cody’s arrest.
Riley testified about seeing the man crouching by his father’s truck, his father approaching the truck, and the man jumping out like he was going to hit Patrick. He stated he went to get his mother, and when they came back outside, he saw the man run off through the neighbors’ yard. Riley went to his father, who was lying on his stomach on the ground. Riley testified he panicked and ran to the neighbor’s house (Robby Wilson) and there called 911.
Christy Wilson testified Patrick struggled with drug addiction. She stated his addiction started with self-medicating because he had transverse myelitis, which “causes a lot of pain” and numbness in his legs, and left Patrick unable to feel his bowels or his feet. She stated, “He started finding prescription pain medications on the street, meth, cocaine, whatever made him feel better and kept him going.” The transverse myelitis was properly diagnosed after seven or eight years, however; and Patrick was given prescription medication, but by then “he had already started abusing and was also abusing those.” She stated he used marijuana daily and “meth” “made him feel younger.”
Christy testified she and Patrick had attempted to have Patrick admitted on April 8, 2011, for “in-house detox and treatment,” but were told he could “do outpatient, that they wouldn’t accept him for in-house.” She stated that after that, “there was a lot lighter mood because he had that off his shoulders that everyone knew what his problem was and that he was going to get help.” Patrick “seemed in better spirits than he had been in quite a while” and set about working on the house, “fixing up the house before he had to go” to treatment.
Christy went to bed about 9 PM on April 8, and was awakened by Riley. She went outside and saw someone, whom she described as “Caucasian, small, skinny,” standing over Patrick. Patrick was on the ground across the street in a neighbor’s yard. She testified she screamed and the person ran off. When she ran to her husband, she stated he told her to “tell them that he hit me in my heart.” She asked him, “Who did this to you?” and he responded, “Oscar,” which was “the last word he ever said to me.”
Alyssa testified that she and Oscar were “unofficially dating,” beginning on St. Patrick’s Day 2011. At trial, she recounted the events on April 8, 2011, including going to the mall and then her house, picking up Amanda and going to the Komodo Klub, drinking tequila at Nick’s dorm room, and seeing the broken windshield. She recounted going to Patrick’s and then driving to pick up Arin. While in the car with Arin, Arin received a phone call from Megan Belcher to go to Patrick’s. The two drove to Patrick’s, where there were “a lot of police.” She stated that while at Patrick’s she received a call from Oscar, who was “crying and said he was sorry.”
Megan and Andrew also spoke with Oscar on the phone. Oscar told Megan, “You’re next, Bitch.” Andrew asked Oscar whether he realized when he left Patrick’s house that Patrick was lying in the yard dead. Oscar replied that he “didn’t do it.”
Sometime during the early morning hours of April 9, Nick got text messages from Oscar saying, “I need a ride ASAP” and “I messed up, man.” Also during those early morning hours, Oscar’s sister, Marlyn, spoke with Oscar on the phone and asked him to come home. Oscar said he could not come home, that he had “murdered someone.” He asked Marlyn if the police were there and Marlyn said they had just been there.
At about 10:00 AM, Cody Peacock was awakened by knocking on his back door and found Oscar wearing bloody clothes and rubbing his hands back and forth. Oscar told him he had been in a fight the night before and asked if he could come inside and get cleaned up. He also told Peacock he had stayed in Peacock’s garage.
Later in the day, Oscar arranged to meet his sister and parents at Gray’s Lake. Oscar was crying, shaking and hyperventilating, and he had a black eye and scratches on his arm. His family persuaded him to turn himself in. He returned home with them, his parents called the police, and Oscar was arrested. Police photographed Oscar’s injuries on April 11, noting fifteen different injuries to Oscar’s head, shoulder, right and left hands, arms and legs. They were minor, not requiring medical attention.
The autopsy showed that Patrick had suffered fifteen stab wounds, including a fatal wound to his heart and a wound that went completely through his forearm and could be considered a defensive wound. Although the knife Oscar had earlier shown to Cody was found near the scene, it showed no traces of blood.
Oscar was charged with first-degree murder and a jury came back with a guilty verdict. Oscar was sentenced to life in prison.
Source: Justia US Law