Published: Monday, November 01, 2010, 7:00 PM
MOBILE, Ala. -- Michael Woolf wouldn’t believe his wife’s assurances or a paternity test showing that their toddler was his biological son — thoughts that grew into an obsession, a prosecutor said Monday.
“And so he took care of the situation,” said Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Jo Beth Murphree.
Woolf’s wife and son — Angel and Ayden Woolf — were found shot to death inside their trailer home off Schillinger Road just after midnight, March 5, 2008.
Michael Woolf called 911 to report the shootings, even telling a dispatcher that he’d just killed his family and needed to go to jail, according to testimony.
On Monday, a jury began deliberating capital murder charges against Woolf after more than five days of testimony. After 2? hours, the jury decided to stop and continue again today.
Prosecutors said Woolf questioned whether the boy was his own after learning of his wife’s extramarital affairs, and the boy became an extension of his wife’s betrayal.
Woolf testified in his own defense that he accidentally shot his son during a fight with his wife, then fired a shot at her. The defense has argued he killed his wife in a heat of passion crime, which would constitute the lesser charge of manslaughter.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Greg Evans said Woolf never intended to kill his family — and he argued that the prosecution did not prove otherwise.
“The only person that knows what went on there that night is Michael, and he told you from the witness stand what happened,” Evans said.
Woolf showed little emotion while testifying last week that he was fighting with his wife when he fired a shot behind him to scare her. He said he heard his wife scream, turned around, and saw his young son was struck.
Woolf did not explain on the witness stand why he turned back to his wife and fired a shot at her.
Evans pointed to a psychologist’s testimony that Woolf has an “extremely low IQ,” bipolar disorder and a history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance abuse.
He said the defense has brought the “unvarnished truth” in the case, including that despite his problems, Woolf still understood the difference between right and wrong. The defense withdrew a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or mental defect before the jury heard closing arguments.
Murphree told jurors that Woolf is a “self-centered misogynist” with “a very easy temper to trigger.”
“Did he kill Angel first?” she said. “Did he kill Ayden first? Did Angel have to have those few horrible moments of seeing her son shot? Or did Ayden have to see mama be shot?”
Murphree said while it can difficult to believe that a parent would kill his own child, that’s what happened at the Woolf home that night.
“Sometimes the boogie man is not just the shadowy figure across the street,” Murphree said. “Sometimes the boogie man is your own dad.”
The trial is being held in Mobile County Circuit Joseph Johnston’s courtroom.
If the jury finds Woolf guilty of capital murder, the panel would then have to recommend life in prison without parole or the death penalty as punishment.?
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