His Brother Admitted To A Murder. He Is Sentenced To Die For It.
Caroline MolloyMCALESTER, Okla. — Linda Wood was not in the courtroom when her son Jake Wood was sentenced.
She had already seen her youngest son, Tremane Wood, go to death row for the murder, which he insisted he did not commit. It seemed all but inevitable that Jake, who at one point had bragged about killing the victim, would follow. Linda could not bear to watch.
Close enough in age to be mistaken for twins, Tremane and Jake had always been inseparable — until they were forced apart in foster care, group homes, juvenile detention centers and eventually, prison. In 2002, they, along with two women, were charged with first-degree murder for the killing of Ronnie Wipf during a botched robbery in Oklahoma City. The charges didn’t distinguish between degrees of culpability — all four were accused of being equally responsible for Ronnie’s death.
Under the state’s so-called felony-murder statute, anyone involved in a felony that leads to a death can be held criminally responsible for that death, regardless of intent or involvement in the actual killing. Prosecutors didn’t have to prove who killed Ronnie, only that each of the defendants participated in the robbery that resulted in his death. The state sought lengthy prison sentences for the women — who had fled by the time of the killing — and death sentences for Tremane and Jake.
