Tarrant County jury finds Wichita Falls man guilty of capital murder of 2-year-old

Harriet Ramos
·2 min read

A Tarrant County jury found a 40-year-old Wichita Falls man guilty of capital murder Monday in the 2018 death of 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel.

James Irven Staley III was found guilty of killing the toddler, called Wilder by his family, in October 2018 when Wilder and his mother, Amber McDaniel, were staying at Staley’s home in Wichita Falls, according to KFDX-TV.

Staley, who is a member of a prominent Wichita Falls family, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, KFDX reported.

The trial began Feb. 27, just two days after what would have been Wilder’s 7th birthday, in the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth, according to KFDX.

After about nine days of testimony and four hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict around 4:20 p.m. Monday, KAUZ-TV reported.

Even though the crime happened in Wichita County, the trial was moved to Tarrant County. Prosecutors said before the start of the trial that they would not seek the death penalty for Staley, according to KFDX.

McDaniel found her 2-year-old son dead beside his crib the morning of Oct. 11, 2018. Autopsy results were inconclusive and the cause of death was listed as undetermined.

The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office reviewed the autopsy results in July 2020 and found that Wilder’s death was “suspicious.” The autopsy report suggested that Wilder had been smothered with a pillow, KFDX reported.

Authorities arrested Staley in October 2020 and charged him with Wilder’s murder. Staley bonded out of jail Nov. 2, 2020, and pleaded not guilty four days later.

The trial was transferred to Tarrant County’s Criminal District Court 3 after Staley’s lawyers filed a change of venue motion in January 2022 on the grounds that Staley wouldn’t receive a fair trial in Wichita County, according to KFDX.

Police found text messages between McDaniel and Staley that led them to arrest McDaniel in July 2021 on the charges of endangering a child and tampering with evidence. The charges against McDaniel are still pending in Wichita County, KFDX reported.

“You may have thought you were going to get away with this, and you may have gotten away with many other things in your life, but my 2-year-old son took you down. You are evil,” McDaniel said to Staley in a statement after the trial, KAUZ reported.