State wraps up Wilson murder case

RALEIGH -- Wake prosecutors today finished presenting their murder case against Jakiem Wilson in the stabbing death of his wife, Nneka Wilson.

Wilson, 24, has admitted killing his wife. But his lawyers hope to avoid a conviction of first-degree murder by showing that he acted in a sudden fit of rage and not the pre-meditated attack that prosecutors described.

The trial will resume Monday morning, when Wilson's attorneys will begin presenting their evidence. The defense has not decided whether he will testify, said Hoyt Tessener, one of his lawyers.

The state's chief medical examiner, John Butts, and a Wake County sheriff's deputy testified for the prosecution today.

Butts said that Nneka Wilson had three stab wounds to her neck and chest. She was stabbed in her heart, a major vein in her neck and a her right lung. The knife's handle broke off in the attack.

Nneka Wilson had a blood-alcohol content of 0.10 at the time of her death, Butts testified. In North Carolina, a driver is considered impaired with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.08.

The deputy described finding her wallet in the woods less than one-fourth mile from the couple's home at 6637 Eagles Crossing Drive near Wendell. He found the wallet two months after her death in February 2007.

Wilson is accused of enlisting the help of two teenage friends to clean up evidence of the crime and make it appear to have been a gang killing. The trio dumped evidence, including bloody rags used to write a threatening message on a wall, near the couple's home.

A sobbing Wilson called emergency dispatchers the next morning, saying that he had come home to find his dead wife. The couple's toddler son and infant daughter were in the home but unharmed.

Sheriff's investigators began to look at Wilson as a suspect after speaking with the two friends, Roderick Howell and Jamie Holder, both 19, the day after Nneka WIlson was killed.

Howell and Holder are charged with being accessories after the murder and remain in custody. Both testified against Wilson.

The two said Wilson told them before the slaying that he wanted to kill his wife after she became upset when she thought he was flirting with a woman on the Internet.

They said WIlson picked them up, drove them to his house and showed them Nneka Wilson's body, which was face down in blood.

Howell and Holder testified that Wilson re-enacted the attack. They said he told them that she had stepped out of the shower and he had asked her for a kiss, then stabbed her with a knife he had hidden behind his back.

Wilson said he killed her because she had nagged him and would want child support if the couple separated, Howell said.

If jurors convict Wilson of first-degree murder, the trial will go into a second phase, dealing with whether his punishment should be death or life in prison. Jurors also have the option of acquitting Wilson or convicting him of second-degree murder, which could allow his eventual release from prison.