Stanley Woman Sentenced for Killing her Ex-Boyfriend Asking for New Trial

Wednesday, December 28th, 2022 -- 12:01 PM

A Stanley woman found guilty of stabbing her ex-boyfriend after a jury trial is requesting a new trial.

According to court records, Ezra McCandless, formerly known as Monica Karlen, and 24-year-old Alexander Woodworth had decided to go for a drive to talk when they got stuck on a muddy road in the Town of Spring Brook in Dunn County.

McCandless claimed that Woodworth started attacking her, told her she looked like a boy and carved the word “boy” in her arm. McCandless said she then took the knife and started to repeatedly stab Woodworth. A corner stated he was stabbed over 16 times.

However, she later admitted to authorities that she carved the word “boy” in her arm herself later. Back in November of 2019, during a three week jury trial, the prosecutors’ case stated that McCandless had intentionally killed Woodworth, while the defense tried to frame it as self-defense.

In November, the jury found McCandless guilty of 1st-degree intentional homicide. In February of 2020, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of being on extended supervision after 50 years.

On Thursday of last week, McCandless’ attorneys filed a motion to vacate the conviction and order a new trial due to, they claim, the jury being allowed to consider “inadmissible and inflammatory character evidence, that the jury got incomplete and incorrect instructions about how to consider psychological evidence, and that the jury was exposed to the state’s improper closing arguments.”

A hearing on the motion has been requested but is not scheduled at this time.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.