2015-03-11
Death of Amarillo prison supervisor focus of upcoming TV program
Posted: March 11, 2015 - 9:08am
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Stan Wiley - TDCJ supervisor Killed at Clements by inmate Travis Runnels 1/29/03 Pic Loc: NR2/ EA/ Local News
By Jim McBride
An Investigation Discovery program will air later this month on the case of a death row inmate convicted of capital murder in the 2003 death of an Amarillo supervisor at the William P. Clements Unit.
The program — set to air at 9 p.m. March 26 on Investigation Discovery, cable channel 35 — centers on Travis Trevino Runnels, who was convicted in 2005 of capital murder in the slashing death of Stanley Allen Wiley, 38.
Wiley was attacked Jan. 29, 2003, in the Clements Unit shoe factory and died later that day at an Amarillo hospital.
Runnels, now 42, claimed he was reacting to previous disagreements with the supervisor, according to court records.
“I started boiling inside,” Runnels said in a written statement quoted in a criminal complaint.
“It seems like my mind went on overload, and I blanked out and started walking toward him,” Runnels said. “The next thing I know, he was turning around looking at me with his hand on his throat with blood running down. I looked down at my hand and a knife was in it.”
Runnels had been assigned as a janitor to the shoe factory for eight days when the attack occurred, according to Amarillo Globe-News files.
Wiley, of Amarillo, joined the prison system in June 1994 as a correctional officer at the Clements Unit, a maximum security facility located off of East Loop 335 just outside the city limits. He also served briefly at the nearby Nathaniel J. “Nat” Neal Unit before returning to Clements. He became an industrial supervisor in 2000, according to prison officials.
A year after the attack, friends, co-workers and top prison officials gathered for a memorial tribute at the prison to honor Wiley’s memory.
Catherine Nall, Wiley’s sister, said at the time she and her family were honored by the tribute.
“I appreciate them remembering, and I’m thankful that they are honoring Stanley this way,” she said. “They are doing very vital and dangerous jobs, and they are putting their safety on the line to keep us safe.”
At the prison entrance, a memorial marker still honors Wiley.