Woman Convicted of Killing Her Ex-Boyfirend Seeking, Again, to Overturn the Decision

Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 -- 12:01 PM

A woman who was convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend is once again seeking to overturn the Dunn County court’s decision.

As you may recall, Ezra McCandless was convicted of the 2018 murder of her ex-boyfriend, Alex Woodworth. She’s serving life in prison with the possibility of parole after 50 years. Friday, October 3, McCandless filed a petition to the state supreme court of appeals.

In it, she asks the court to review the following:

• McCandless was questioned by police while detained in a locked psychiatric unit. Were her statements to police voluntary?
• Were Alex Woodworth’s journals really inadmissible “character” evidence? The circuit court labeled the journals as “character” evidence, limiting their use in McCandless’s self-defense claim.
• Her defense team says the circuit court instructed the jury that this was not an “NGI” case, limiting their consideration of psychological evidence introduced at trial.

This is the third attempt to appeal her conviction. She was denied in circuit court in 2022 and once again just last month by the state court of appeals. In 2019, a jury found McCandless guilty of First-Degree Intentional Homicide after 3 hours of deliberation. McCandless had claimed self-defense in the homicide.

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