Killer dies in escape attempt from Arkansas prison

Two put on leave after fatal shots

Christopher Wilson
Christopher Wilson

Convicted killer Christopher Wilson was shot and killed shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday as he tried to escape from the Arkansas Department of Correction's Varner unit in Grady.

The Correction Department released few details about the circumstances surrounding Wilson's death.

Solomon Graves, public information officer and legislative liaison for the Correction Department, said Thursday afternoon that two correctional officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave until the Arkansas State Police can complete an investigation, as required by agency policy.

"Once the state police completes its investigation, additional information will be released," Graves said.

Wilson, 41, formerly of Saltillo in Faulkner County, was serving a double sentence of life without parole for the 2002 murders of a neighbor and her 8-month-old son. He pleaded guilty in September 2003 to killing Pamela Kay Reed, 26, and her infant son Lucas Aaron Reed on Dec. 27, 2002, at their home in Saltillo.

Wilson's death brought back a flood of memories for the investigator and prosecutors involved in the gruesome case.

"It was an extremely, extremely violent double homicide," retired Arkansas State Police investigator Karl Byrd, the lead investigator on the case, said Thursday.

H.G. Foster, the Faulkner County prosecuting attorney at the time, choked up while recalling details of the case.

"It's the kind of case that stays with you," said Foster, who now serves as a circuit judge for the judicial district that includes Faulkner County. "It was a bad one."

Wilson began attacking Pamela Reed inside her home and the struggle continued outside under a metal carport, Byrd said. Wilson broke a couple of knives stabbing Reed as the dinner she had been making continued to cook on her stove, the former investigator said. Reed's bloody footprints painted a grisly picture of the scene that unfolded, Byrd said. Police were unable to determine the exact number of stab wounds she suffered.

The investigator said Wilson then went back into the home, where he killed the infant by striking him six times with a tile chisel that police never recovered. Byrd said Wilson told him after his arrest that he went back inside to kill the baby because "he just had to finish the job."

Police found blood from both victims on Wilson's clothes, which he tried to hide in the woods nearby. Byrd said Pamela Reed's family agreed to Wilson's plea because they did not want to have to suffer through the details of the murders in court.

"The story that he gave me when he confessed was that he thought that she was an informant that got him in trouble on drug charges, but I personally don't believe that's the reason that it happened," Byrd said.

Wilson had other motives, Byrd said, but the investigator declined to discuss them.

Wilson did not show any remorse during his interrogation, Byrd recalled, and "tried to play crazy" in an attempt to convince the investigator that he was mentally incompetent at the time of the murders.

"When he realized that I recognized the fact that he knew what he did was wrong, he said, 'I messed up, didn't I?' I said, 'Yeah, you did," Byrd said.

Graves said Wilson is the first Arkansas Department of Correction inmate since 1991 to die from the use of deadly force.

Tommy L. Thompson -- a 43-year-old inmate serving time on a felony conviction of rape, burglary and aggravated assault -- was killed on Feb. 19, 1991, while attempting to kill another prisoner at the Tucker unit northeast of Pine Bluff.

Vann Tucker was the last inmate to die in Arkansas Department of Correction custody while trying to escape, Graves said. Tucker was just shy of his 30th birthday when he was caught in an electric fence at Varner on June 25, 2013.

Regulations outlined by the Arkansas Board of Corrections dictate that deadly force can be used on an inmate "to prevent the escape of an inmate unless the correctional officer knows or reasonably should know that the prisoner is charged with or has been convicted of only a misdemeanor, in which case only non-deadly physical force may be used."

Deadly force is defined as "any force that under the circumstances is readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury."

State law also allows deadly force to be used on an escaping felon.

Foster's chief deputy prosecutor at the time of the murder, 15th Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden, described Wilson's crimes as "heartless" and "ruthless."

"Mr. Wilson was where he needed to be," Vaden said of Wilson's incarceration at the Department of Correction. "I wish I could tell you that I was really sorry for what happened to him, but under the circumstances, I'm not, just because of what he did."

State Desk on 04/08/2016

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