PITTSBORO - Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall has opened his fourth capital case of the year -- and of his career as the judicial district's top prosecutor.

Woodall's top assistant prosecutor for Chatham County, Kayley Taber, announced Monday that they intend to pursue the death penalty against Louis Ephraim Wilson, accused of raping and killing Tracy Lynn Baldwin in May after she confronted him about stealing money from her accounts.

"He was able to basically clean out her accounts prior to the murder," Taber said.

Woodall had previously announced plans to pursue the death penalty against:

* Demario James Atwater, charged with shooting Eve Carson, president of the UNC-Chapel Hill student body.

* Housekeeper Barbara Clark, accused of fatally beating two elderly women who had employed her.

* Bobby Lee Person, charged with robbing and killing his mother.

The last time there were as many active capital cases in Orange and Chatham counties was in 1985, when Carl Fox, now a Superior Court judge, prosecuted 19 homicides in his first year as district attorney.

Person is scheduled for trial in April. His would be Woodall's first capital trial since he assisted Fox with the prosecution of Ralph Hamilton, convicted of shooting to death his wife, Marva, in the Smith Center parking lot in 1991. Hamilton was eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Fox was on the other side of the bench Monday, accepting Taber's filing of four aggravating factors that she thinks make Wilson eligible for the death penalty. Taber said Wilson killed Baldwin to avoid arrest for the thefts; for financial gain at the time of a rape and kidnapping; and in an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner.

Taber said Wilson bound Baldwin's hands and feet, cutting into her skin; raped her; and beat her with a blunt object.

"The beating around her head was so severe that she was basically unrecognizable," Taber said.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles on his hands and feet, Wilson told Fox "No, sir" regarding saying anything about the charges.

"Allegations have been made that at the appropriate time we will dispute," said Wilson's attorney, James Williams, the district's public defender, who is also defending Atwater and Clark against capital charges. Preparing three separate capital defenses "doesn't make life easier," Williams said.

"It just makes things hard," agreed Woodall, whose office is prosecuting suspects in a string of nine homicides that took place from November to March.

The district attorney could announce a fifth capital case later this year. Randall Standifer is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend's new lover, Jeffrey Walton, on Christmas Day.

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