An appeals court has upheld Mytrez Woolen’s life sentence for the 2021 murder of Pastor Mark McWilliams, denying all of Woolen’s appeal claims.
STARRVILLE, Texas — An appeals court on Wednesday affirmed the conviction of a man serving life in prison for murdering an East Texas pastor in 2021.
Mytrez Woolen was found guilty of capital murder in September 2024 for shooting and killing Starrville Methodist Church Pastor Mark McWilliams while hiding inside the church on Jan. 3, 2021. He was then automatically given a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Woolen appealed his conviction based on five issues to the 12th Court of Appeals, and on Wednesday, the court affirmed his conviction by denying all five items.
Firstly, he claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to support his conviction, specifically that he committed the felony of stealing the church’s bank bag. He also tried to say evidence in court didn’t disprove his self-defense claim.
McWilliams and his wife found Woolen hiding in the church bathroom in the morning prior to church service. McWilliams told Woolen, who was holding the church’s money bag, to leave the church while holding Woolen at gunpoint. The two struggled and Woolen shot and killed the pastor with his own gun.
Woolen had claimed the money in the bag was his, but the court found even if that case, he still ran away with church’s bag. The court also noted in the shooting that Woolen stole McWilliams’ gun from him. Both instances showed Woolen committed another felony during the murder, making the offense capital murder.
Secondarily, he claimed the trial court failed to address his competency to stand trial. In 2021, he was found incompetent; however, in 2024, before his trial, he was determined to be restored. The appeals court found Woolen’s complaints in letters only show dissatisfaction with being in prison, not incompetence.
In the third claim, Woolen says the trial court errored in not allowing the lesser offense of murder to be included in jurors’ deliberations. The appeals court agreed saying that Woolen’s actions meet the requirements of capital murder because evidence showed he stole the bank bag and McWilliams’ gun to kill him and ran away with the gun in a stolen vehicle.
As a fourth complaint, Woolen tried to say his sentence of imprisonment for life without parole is “cruel and unusual punishment.” The court denied this issue.
In the fifth issue, he said the mandatory life sentence that he received is unconstitutional.
The state chose not to seek the death penalty for Woolen because he has a “verified mental illness.” So after he was convicted, he was given life in prison without parole, the only punishment for someone not getting death for capital murder.
The appeals court determined a mandatory life imprisonment does not violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.