Prosecutors push back against James Staley's appeal of his murder conviction

Prosecutors fighting to uphold a once prosperous oilman's conviction for 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel's murder detailed their support of a warrant that yielded a wealth of key digital evidence at trial.

They contend challenges to the search warrant on appeal from James Irven Staley III, convicted of capital murder March 13, are coming too late, according to a brief filed Thursday.

What's more, a district judge had a solid basis to issue the warrant for a search that led to police seizing Staley's digital devices, according to prosecutors' filings in a Fort Worth appeals court.

Hefty record for James Staley's criminal case

That is the short version of an over 17,000-word brief submitted by Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie and Assistant DA Bryce Perry. The appeals court allowed them to exceed a 15,000-word limit.

Gillespie and Perry noted a need to respond comprehensively to challenges raised by Staley's appeals attorney, Keith Hampton, in a murder case with tons of documents, a huge trial record and scads of evidence.

All told, the clerk’s record is nearly 1,800 pages. The court reporter’s record covers 28 volumes. That includes over 2,500 pages of evidence the jury heard and thousands of pages of exhibits.

Search related to Wilder's murder called into question

At issue in Staley's appeal is a warrant Hampton contends violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Hampton believes the affidavit written to persuade now retired 78th District Judge Barney Fudge to issue the warrant was shoddy, "stock boilerplate" and invalid.

So the evidence from Staley's seized digital devices was inadmissible before a jury, according to the brief the Austin defense lawyer filed Nov. 2 in the Second Court of Appeals.

An infamous "slapping video," other disturbing videos and numerous toxic digital messages were among evidence presented to Fort Worth jurors. They found Staley guilty of capital murder of a person under 10 after a three-week trial.

He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. But Hampton is calling for the appeals court to overturn his client's conviction and grant him a new trial.

More: Anthony Patterson's child sex crimes trial delayed

Prosecutors contend Staley hated the child

As for prosecutors, they say Staley hated, threatened and abused Wilder while seeing his mother, Amber Odom — now Amber McDaniel — during a brief, volatile romance.

Their relationship ended soon after Staley murdered Wilder by smothering him with a pillow in a crib Oct. 11, 2018, in Staley's Country Club area home, prosecutors say.

Then he staged the child’s body on the floor to make it look as if Wilder died as a result of a fall from a crib in the bedroom where his mother had put him to sleep the night before.

What police found in James Staley's home

Wichita Falls police detective Raymond Perry, since retired from the department, wrote the affidavit for a search warrant served Oct. 22, 2018, on Staley’s home in the 200 block of Irving Place.

Police seized Staley's cell phone, laptop and Mac Mini computer. The North Texas Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory found on the Mac Mini both the “slapping” video made on a GoPro and the “quite the shiner” video.

Prosecutors: James Staley's rights not impacted

Prosecutors contend Staley has already forfeited most of his complaints raised on appeal because he didn't bring them up in the trial court, according to the brief.

That goes for his allegations the warrant was general and didn't follow the law, according to prosecutors. Staley is also too late in complaining about searches of digital devices other than the Mac Mini.

He didn't object to evidence gleaned from them before trial or at trial that he is taking issue with in his appeal. Prosecutors do not agree with Staley's complaint that the trial court should have suppressed evidence from the Mac Mini because the search warrant was not supported by probable cause.

They urged the appeals court to find that the warrant's affidavit provided substantial basis for probable cause under the review standards for Fudge's decision to issue the search warrant.

Prosecutors also contend the appeals court should find that any error in the admission of evidence from the Mac Mini did not likely push the jury to persuasion of Staley's guilt or affect his rights.

More: UPDATED: Bond set for Chris Morland, police release info on allegations he murdered wife

Wilder's mother is serving two years in a state jail for endangering the child by allowing him to be around Staley. She has also been sentenced to five years of probation for tampering with evidence by deleting electronic messages between herself and her ex-boyfriend from her cell phone.

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Prosecutors respond to James Staley's claims to an appeals court