Haven't seen anything posted-from Army Times

Man charged in death of soldier’s wife


Associated Press


FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The family of a man charged with killing a soldier’s wife says there are logical explanations for evidence in the case.
John Lennon Wood, 20, was charged Saturday with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Angie Mosden, whose Green Beret husband was deployed to Afghanistan at the time.

Wood’s family said that he and Mosden’s oldest daughter, Dawn, dated for a few months two years ago and that he had no reason to want to kill Angie Mosden.

The family said they have been told evidence linking Wood to the crime includes fingerprints on duct tape beside the body, a leather jacket with blood on it and a fresh cigarette butt found near the back door where the intruder smashed his way into the house.

Wood’s father, David Wood, said it’s possible his son’s prints were on the duct tape from when he visited the house.

Cumberland County Sheriff’s Lt. Sam Pennica confirmed the physical evidence linking Wood to the crime scene.

Wood said nothing in his first court appearance Monday. He was ordered held without bond and an attorney was appointed.

Mosden, 40, was stabbed several times after an intruder came through her privacy fence, smashed the glass out of a back door with a piece of firewood and entered the house.

Mosden’s 12-year-old daughter, who was sleeping in the bed with her mother, tried unsuccessfully to fight off the attacker. The 12-year-old escaped out a front bedroom window with her 14-year-old sister and sought help from a neighbor, who called 911. Angie Mosden died before rescue workers arrived.

Pennica said officers got a description of the attacker from the 12-year-old and from neighbors who were awakened by Mosden’s burglar alarm.

Mosden’s husband, Sgt. Maj. Richard Mosden, returned home late Friday from Afghanistan.

Kevin Patterson, who lives in the Woods’ household, said the jacket was his and was often borrowed by Wood. It wasn’t unusual to find blood on it because of his job cleaning kidney dialysis machines.

Patterson and his brother Duane are the sons of Carolyn Bailey, who is David Wood’s girlfriend. They all live in the same house, about a mile from the crime scene.

Pennica said investigators feel there is sufficient evidence to hold Wood, whose fingerprints were included in a crime database because he was convicted of second-degree burglary about a year ago.

“We’ve got his fingerprints on an item of evidence laying next to the body along with a matching physical description, and he lives in such close proximity to the crime scene,” he said.

Pennica said that lawmen also recovered the butt of a Kool cigarette near the door where the intruder entered and found an empty Kool package in Wood’s bedroom.

Pennica said Angie Mosden was awakened by a noise and met her attacker in the living room with a baseball bat. The butcher knife used to stab her was from her kitchen, he said.

Duane Patterson said he and John Wood knew all three Mosden daughters well and that Angie Mosden had always liked them.

"John Lennon"?  I wonder if his parents ever "imagined" what a murdering POS he'd grow up to be.  [rolleyes]

How sad, here is a man defending our country and a low-life kills his wife, I'm really outraged! I hope they put this John Lennon Wood away for so long he will never see daylight.

It is also sad that she probably didn't keep a gun handy "for the children".

I was thinking the same thing.

If someone smashes through a door to get into your house, odds are you're going to have more trouble than you can handle with a baseball bat.

Many woman are scared of guns. It doesn't take much to overcome a woman that is groggy from being just woken up in the middle of the night. Chalk one up for the people at HCI who says to call 911 and get a baseball, because a gun in your is 3 times more dangerous to yourself propaganda.

If she had a gun and knew how to use it, she would probably in NRA American Rifleman's Armed Citizen column for people successfully defending themselves with a gun; and of course alive.


The samething happened at my father-in-law's house when some bad-guys broke into my in-laws house. Had my father-in-law been at home, he would have been stabbed too, because the LAPD found a kitchen knife in the bedroom. They stole his 1911 that he brought home from WWII.

I guess the rule is don't confront an intruder in your house if you are not adequately prepared.