BESSEMER — A Talladega County man convicted of the 1986 capital murder of a young Sycamore woman died on death row while awaiting a new trial.Brian Corbett, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections, said Shep Wilson Jr., 50, died Thursday at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer.
Wilson had been on death row since Nov. 26, 1986, after he was convicted of the capital murder of Monica Cook, 19, of Sycamore.
According to testimony during the November 1986 capital murder trial, Wilson abducted Cook Jan. 27, 1986, while she was working at the Shell Discount Food Mart in Sylacauga.
Evidence showed that Cook was taken by force from the store, and Wilson raped, beat and choked her to death, dumping her body on the side of a road.
Cook’s body was found on Riser’s Mill Road, just off Talladega County 139, three days after she was abducted.
Wilson allegedly kept Cook’s body in his home for about two days after she died and drove to work with the body in his car trunk.
About a month after Cook’s body was found, Wilson was arrested on an unrelated charge. He eventually confessed to Cook’s murder.
Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Pat Curry said Wilson died from natural causes.
“He had a long-term illness,” Curry said.
Corbett said Wilson died in the prison’s infirmary, not in a death row cell.
Donaldson Correctional Facility in west Jefferson County officially opened as West Jefferson Correctional Facility. The facility houses repeat and/or multiple violent offenders with lengthy sentences. In addition, Donaldson houses death row inmates.
Talladega County District Attorney Steve Giddens said Monday his office was preparing to retry the capital murder case after a higher court reversed Wilson’s capital murder conviction.
Giddens said the District Attorney’s Office would have probably retried the case next year.
Defense attorneys representing Wilson during the 1986 trial attempted to have evidence and a taped confession made by Wilson to authorities thrown out of court, but evidence seized at the defendant’s home and the taped confession were allowed into the criminal trial.
Wilson was on parole for a 1981 first-degree rape conviction at the time he committed the murder.
According to the Talladega County Circuit Clerk’s Office, the capital murder case was reversed and remanded back to Talladega County courts Nov. 30, 1990.
Former Talladega County District Attorney Robert Rumsey, who prosecuted the case, was not available for immediate comment Monday.
Wilson’s defense attorney, J.L. Chestnutt of Selma, was also not available for immediate comment Monday.
