Sheila Mae Wolfe, 54, of Pottsboro, today plead guilty to one charge of Murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The sentence was handed down by 397th District Court Judge Brian Gary pursuant to a plea agreement which Wolfe reached with the Grayson County District Attorney’s Office.
On December 16, 2013, at approximately 6:10 pm. the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office received two 911 calls from 1847 Flowing Wells Road, outside of Pottsboro. The first call came from Kathy Terrill, age 54, who requested law enforcement help because a woman, Marlene Cannon, age 70, had been found in the bed at Cannon’s home unresponsive, covered in blood, and severely injured. The second 911 call from the address came from Sheila Wolfe, Cannon’s daughter who also lived at the address. When deputies responded they found Cannon lying in her bed with severe injuries to her head. Cannon died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
Investigators interviewed the two women at the scene. Terrill told them that she had been staying with Marlene Cannon and Wolfe for a few days because of maintenance problems at her home. She had been friends with Cannon for years after originally working for her at a business that Cannon had operated. Terrill stated she had been at work that day, and had been picked up by Sheila Wolfe a short time before they arrived home. She described Wolfe as highly intoxicated and acting strangely. Terrill said that when she and Wolfe arrived back at the house, Wolfe insisted on burning some trash in a barrel in the front yard before entering the home. Terrill found this to be unusual. Once in the home, Wolfe began calling out for her mother in an unusual fashion, before going back into the bedroom, and shrieking. Terrill went back into the bedroom and found Mrs. Cannon in the bed, with blood covering her and a large amount of blood on the bed and walls.
An autopsy revealed that Cannon had died from multiple blunt force injuries to her head. The pathologist noted at least ten separate impact sites on Cannon’s head.
Sheila Wolfe told investigators that she had last seen her mother at the home about 3 pm when she left to go take metal to a scrap yard. She said she then went to pick Terrill up at work, and when she returned, she found her mother injured in the bed. She claimed she had jumped onto the bed to check on her mother’s condition, which explained the blood which authorities found on Wolfe’s clothing and body. Wolfe admitted to burning trash in the barrel before entering the house, but denied that she burned anything of evidentiary value. Investigators were unable to recover any evidence from the burn barrel.
Upon speaking to witnesses who were familiar with Marlene Cannon and Wolfe, investigators learned that Wolfe had previously expressed anger that Cannon was “spending up her inheritance” and that Wolfe had been physically abusive to Cannon a few weeks before the murder. Over several weeks, investigators continued to investigate the relationship between mother and daughter. Seeking to build trust with Wolfe, Grayson County Sergeant J. D. Hudman continued to visit with the suspect. In June of 2014, six months after the murder, Hudman’s efforts were rewarded.
On June 16, 2015, J.D. Hudman again spoke to Wolfe about the crime. While she continued to deny involvement, Wolfe later that evening, while sounding despondent, called Hudman and told him that she had “thrown the weapon in the pond”. Deputies scrambled to the scene. Investigator David Russell arrived first and found that Wolfe, despondent and intoxicated, had removed her pants and was sitting beside a farm pond near her property. Near Wolfe was a steak knife stuck into the ground, along with a bible, flashlight, bottle of vodka, and a beer. Wolfe ultimately showed Russell where the weapon had been thrown in the pond. A dive team from the Denison fire department was called to the location, and a diver found a small sledge hammer in the pond where Wolfe had indicated. Wolfe told investigators that she had found the sledge hammer on her mother’s body the night of her death and that she had taken it and thrown it in the pond because she was scared. She continued to deny that she had killed her mother.
“This was a strange case, to say the least,” said Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown. “A woman killing her mother is unusual enough, but then all of the other facts just really make it weird. We may never have broken this case if it had not been for Deputy Hudman staying persistent with the suspect, and developing a relationship that allowed her to trust him. He did a very good job, as did the other deputies and our local Texas Ranger, Brad Oliver.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Donnie Carter. Sherman attorney T. Scott Smith represented Wolfe.
Wolfe will be eligible for parole after serving one half of her sentence.
