Monsters Among Us: Travis Trevino Runnels killed Stanley A. Wiley, a prison employee

From Runnels appeal: Appellant did not enjoy working as a janitor at the prison boot factory. On the morning of the day of the murder, he expressed anger at the fact that he had not been transferred to being a barber as he had requested. He told fellow inmate Bud Williams that he was going to be “shipped one way or another” and that “he was going to kill someone.” Appellant said that he would kill Wiley if Wiley said anything to him that morning. Appellant told another inmate, William Gilchrist, that he planned to hold the boot-factory plant manager hostage in the office after the other correctional officers had left. Finally, after appellant had arrived at the boot factory, he told fellow inmate Phillip Yow that he was going to do something.

During the first shift at the boot factory, appellant approached Wiley, raised a knife, tilted Wiley’s head back, and cut his throat. Appellant then wiped the knife with a white rag and walked back toward the trimming tables. When Yow later asked appellant why he had attacked Wiley, appellant said, “It could have been any offender or inmate, you know, as long as they was white.” In response to Yow’s explanation that appellant could get the death penalty if Wiley died, appellant responded, “A dead man can’t talk.”

Wiley did die from the injury. It was later determined that the cut was a twenty-three centimeter long neck wound that transected the external carotid artery and the internal jugular vein and extended in depth to the spine. A medical examiner found that the force required to inflict the wound was “moderate to severe.” Appellant was twenty-six years old when he committed the offense.

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INMATE INFORMATION

SID Number: 05134562
TDCJ Number: 00999505
Name: RUNNELS,TRAVIS TREVINO
Race: B
Gender: M
DOB: 1972-12-17
Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW
Current Facility: POLUNSKY
Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW
Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW