Charles Wooten

Charles Edward Wooten (born 1950) is an American serial killer. Initially convicted and sentenced to life for two separate murders committed around Fort Worth, Texas in 1969, he was paroled in May 1992 thanks to campaigning from his father, Arlis, whom Wooten would kill during an argument in July 1993. Wooten was later convicted of this murder and given another life term.

Murders First murders In April 1969, Wooten, then imprisoned on a 5-year prison sentence for armed robbery, was paroled after serving only 18 months. On September 1, he and an unnamed 16-year-old accomplice went to a gas station on the North Side of Fort Worth, where they kidnapped and later shot the 58-year-old attendant, Loyd Dewey Choat. A few days later, the man's body was found in a creekbed near Watauga. According to one sheriff's suspicions, the killer might have brought two teenage girls to view Choat's body, but the reason for this belief was never established.

On November 6, the day of Wooten's bachelor party, he, along with his 18-year-old brother-in-law Michael Wayne Bush and 17-year-old Gerald Ross Weatherly, decided that they would rob a local gas station attendant working the night shift, a 26-year-old man by the name of David Daniels. The day after, the trio entered the gas station and robbed it, with Wooten stabbing Daniels 36 times before fleeing. Both Choat and Daniels' murders were initially thought to be unconnected, until shortly after Wooten's arrest on December 20, when he was caught after attempting to rob a grocery store where his father, Arlis "Edward" Wooten, worked as an assistant manager. The sheriff presiding over his detention, Lon Evans, nonetheless contacted sheriffs and police departments all around the area, none of which reported having a crime with such characteristics. As a result, this supposed "confession" of Wooten's was considered a hoax and ignored. The elder Wooten's disappearance was reported to police by one of his other sons a few days later, and after searching through the shrubbery, authorities located a set of four charred, scattered limbs which were tentatively identified as belonging to Arlis Wooten.

Arrest, trial and imprisonment Charles was arrested as a suspect in the murder on August 3 and held on $100,000, together with two alleged accomplices, 41-year-old Titus Henry Hill and 24-year-old Michelle Ann Matl. This outcome came as a disappointment to most of his family members, who wanted him sentenced to death for their father's murder.

As of June 2023, Wooten remains incarcerated at the J. Dale Wainwright Unit in Lovelady. He will become eligible for parole in 2028.