The Case of Ezra McCandless

McCanless please rise we the jury find the defendant Ezra Jay McCandless guilty a first-degree intentional homicide as charged in the information and the answer to the special verdict question is yes use the dangerous weapon and you may be seated all right ladies and gentlemen is this your verdict all right you're probably wondering how she got into this mess well to tell that story we have to go back hey you and well my name is Mike and in this video we're gonna talk about the relatively recent case of Ezra McCandless on an evening in March 20 18 20 year old Ezra McCandless roughed up to a farm in Eau Claire Wisconsin she claimed she had been attacked and had a crude carving on her arm she would eventually say that an ex-boyfriend by the name of Alex Woodworth he was the one who had attacked her but well you know so let's get into it [Music] on March 22nd 2018 Ezra McCandless showed up on the doorstep of a farmer Nero Claire Wisconsin she was covered in mud blood she was bruised on shoeless asking for a doctor and she oh well as you can imagine just help in general no [ __ ] the farm she rocked up to was owned by one Don Sybil and he called 9-1-1 right away this is Don Schiphol calling and I have a young lady that just came to my halogen and somebody attacked her and she needs a doctor the floors are all torn and said what at the end was he located in what what is the address you were at he's 76 14400 30th Avenue okay and it's she injured yeah she entered her molitor's kind of got some blood around at her toys clothes are all gonna go bad and she's by herself she's by herself she went to my hall chair just recently okay and can you ask her what her name is guess hold on a second okay what's your name [Music] but you don't know she's in kind of bad shape she says you don't know let me put you on hold do not hang up I'm mr. to help okay sure did she say who did this to her no she said she was attacked solder them and she's from Oakland okay and your name do you have any idea who she said she was cold in shock and had been assaulted when the police arrived she wasn't in a very conversational mood as you can imagine obviously and eventually she would say to the police that it was her ex-boyfriend Alex Woodworth who had attacked her during her time with the police she kept asking for one person to be there with her a guy by the name of Jason mangle he was another boyfriend / ex-boyfriend 13 years older than Ezra okay so we just went through a lot let's put this show in Reverse shall we Ezra McCandless was born on October 6th 1997 when her mother was just 14 years old Ezra was actually born monica kay but would later change her name she got the McCandless part from Christopher McCandless the into the wild guy who decided to leave society shunning modern stuff and eventually starve to death after eating poison Sperrys and Alaska didn't turn out too well for him but I'd recommend the movie she would later drop out of college and begin her new life in downtown Oakland [Music] [Music] growing up Ezra had questioned her gender what if times identify as a boy but as she grew up she stopped doing this some would later just identify as the girl she became an amateur artist using her own car even as a canvas she was described as a person who loved attention I mean this is her car so yeah in 2017 she met Jason mangle a medic in the Army Reserve they fell in love pretty darn quickly despite the 13-year age gap they would eventually move in together and even contemplate get married even though they don't actually been together for eight months they'd often hang out together a damn tan coffee shop races and there they would both meet Alex Woodworth Alex was a 23 year old barista on substitute teacher who dreamt of becoming a philosophy professor he was the oldest of four siblings described as a big nerd who loved helping people and especially helping ezra who i think was a little troubled we'll see but shock horror they began a secret relationship behind Jason mangles back something Ezra would later describe as a good old BDSM relationship Kemal my whip sounded ship Jason eventually found out confronted them and Ezra just broke up with him both she was like [ __ ] you guys I'm out of here for a little bit Jason then left for military training for two weeks when he came back Ezra told him she had been sexually assaulted by one of his best friends Jason was obviously like what the book he went to the police on a xor's behalf this was March 1st 2018 so three weeks before Ezra would rock up on Don Sybil's doorstep but wine and things and if I don't okay to have some wine and we try to talk come try to understand what's going on like I was really really really drunk almost flag up and I was throwing up and had me go upstairs I started throwing up any took me upstairs then you put me in his bed and I was throwing it up I just remember a lot of I don't know it's a big mess of bunch of fumbling and stuff and awful you tell Jason what happened into everything tonight that's what he said to me where's everybody didn't you tell Jason what happened that night or that day she said she had been drinking with the fella eventually blacked out and that's when he assaulted her however during the investigation of Ezra's sexual assault the police looked at her phone records and they showed she'd sent this guy some pretty suggestive stuff she also said she had sex with Alex again during this time while Jason was away now of course that doesn't mean she wasn't sexually assaulted but when the police went to speak to Alex about this he said no no Ezra told me she had had sex with that guy and it was totally consensual but that she just regretted it and so it was like ah the case was ultimately dropped so who knows what really happened Ezra then moved out of Eau Claire and back home with her family but she was desperate to win back old Jason Mangal she would tell him that these manipulative evil men who had tried to steal her away from him that it wasn't her it was then it's their fault I had an affair come on but Jason he had had enough he said you and lies and lies of Ezra McCandless had just builds up he could never trust her again and Ezra oh boy she was she was not happy and all of that led to March 22nd 2080 on that date Jason was at his usual haunt racis coffee shop when Ezra suddenly showed up they had been messaging the night before but he had no idea she turn up in town she said she's back in town to show Alex Woodworth some of her writing and drawing she was getting her life back on track she then left to go to Alex's house and Jason he was like hmm something seems really off like something weird going on here I don't know I don't like it after a while he was like okay maybe I should do something he left racis cycle over to Alex's and then you know just have a goo see what's going on make sure everything's okay he then saw Ezra's car outside Alex's place he can i cycle around the block a bit should I shouldn't I eventually he decided to go in I saw Alex and Ezra they're inside the house it was like guys is never you okay I'm just gonna you know weird vibe here maybe maybe you guys shouldn't be alone together what do you think at which point a janitor who was working nearby called the cops saying he had seen a suspicious person biking around the area I'm tasting in front of a house so and said they saw you park your bike over here yeah and then walk over there what's on that car do you know that person that lives there it's my girlfriend's car brights girlfriend we're kind of in a situation I think you talked to this one the guy that was there is involved in an assault case that she's with and she's a victim oh he's the victim of an assault that happened and when she went to him for consoling and I was gone on military orders okay she went to him to talk to him about stuff and then he kind of took advantage of Richard when she wanted to talk to him I think today about some stuff and I was paranoid cuz she had like fire in your eyes okay so I who's the girlfriend Ezra McCandless okay I was just worried cos like where's the door stand and open over there when you got there I'm a car I knocked like three times I didn't hear anything I didn't hear a scuffle or anything so knock knock yelled open the door and I heard her say let him help you I can help you so then I said hey is everything okay is everyone all right right now I mean I'm a medic in the military so like I was paranoid I was paranoid that someone's gonna do something irrational okay and they're in the house on that corner here or yeah we're on I think they're fine though I mean I don't know I'm just I just saw the door to the car was standing open - well yeah one car up her car was running so that's why I was like worried because it was running I was like okay what's going on like what's going on is everything okay okay the only idea with you yes Jason you live in town Roger that just worried I don't think he's dangerous but I don't know you know what his name is Alex Alex wouldn't work kind of work work I think it's quids worth of what's worth taking over right right all right everything okay okay somebody called us kind of worried because they thought Jason come over here and he was going in the car and they weren't sure what was going on everything's fine okay they were just a little worried because they saw the car running over here and they weren't sure what was going on and all that jazz gonna just let it out of there I don't want to take your wallet from play it's okay it's okay I'd rather come here and check and it'd be nothing than have something bad happen it Ezra where do you live okay there you go you guys are good to go thank you we're good to go everything's good there okay using it's like I'll take care of it still no problem all right you have a good day Jason then bike Dolph Alex and Ezra left in Ezra's car and Alex would be dead a few hours later specifically tree hours later because that's when Ezra showed up to dawn simple sperm covered in blood covered in mud bruised and crying out for help during a police interview after she couldn't tell the police much her memory it's vague remember is feeling scared and Alex is nowhere to be found Ezra can't remember what happened or where they where so they call them they visit his house they visit his family nada so the next day the police returned to Dawn's firm to see if they can track Ezra's movements and find Alex after spotting muddy footprints in the mud they follow and eventually find a car Ezra's car and they see a human body hanging out of the backseat driver's side they knew it was Alex before they reached the body he had been stabbed 16 times so the police you know they got a crime scene they go back to Ezra hey we found Alex he's dead as [ __ ] know anything about that Azhar then oh I do yeah he had a knife and he started carving into my [ __ ] left arm he carved the word boy she said Alex knew she had questioned her gender before had identified as a boy in the past and well apparently he didn't want her to forget it so detective is like okay so so where was he sinned okay you say he was sitting you know in the driver's side so you were sitting in the passenger side and he grabbed your he was he was right-handed and he grabbed your left arm how that's like really awkward awkward angle how would he you know it didn't make sense and Ezra would eventually admit she'd done it herself she even said they both had been sitting in the backseat when Alex attacked her tried to cut her clothing off and sexually assault her Ezra then fighting for her life was able to wrench the knife from Alex by its blade no less and she stabbed him to death investigators then looked at her hands and she only had superficial wounds they're not like she had grabbed a knife by the blade the wounds didn't match this seam didn't match for example the car wasn't that bloody in fact evidence showed that Alex had been stabbed inside the car he had no defensive wounds almost like he had been attacked by surprise police also say she spent time after he was dead I hope after he was dead mutilating his penis ouch police then began to theorize that Ezra wanted to get back with Jason so Alex he needed to be out of the picture two weeks after Ezra McCandless was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide 18 months later her trial began today the trial is underway of a Dunn County murder case Ezra McCandless is accused of stabbing Alexander worth of o'clair 16 times in March of 2018 his body was found in a car in Springbrook Township between eau claire and Menominee prosecutors say McCandless showed up at a home not far from the crime scene barefoot and disheveled with some blood around her mouth the 21 year old is charged with first degree intentional homicide she has pleaded not guilty to the charge esra from the get-go claimed she killed Alex in self-defense it was a pretty big deal received nationwide attention what I recall my dad telling me he told me many times and he would always tell me when you're in a situation with an individual or if someone's attacking you that you need to do anything and everything you can to get away to defend yourself and he would tell me about you can use knives you can scratch you can kick you can fight what were your feelings or what did he tell you about him referring to you as a boy well as our relationship progressed I told him about how identified in the past as almost strictly masculine and he he preferred that I presented myself in a masculine way he often told me how confident I looked and how much he was attracted to me because he could call me a boy his boy and present it that way did you present yourself as a male to Alex yes I didn't what about the word boy specifically how did you feel about his use of the word boy the word boy specifically at first it was gender as you can call it but then the word became more possessive I was his boy it felt objectifying at times before I even moved what was going through my mind is he's gonna do what he wants he's gonna take anything he wants he's he's going to just he's going to use me I don't know what to do I'm terrified I couldn't move had Alex ever cut you with a knife before no I'm afraid he's going to kill me I decided then to meet him in the groin he reacts and he drops the knife at that point at this point I have the knife I'm trying to get out of the car I just need I need to get out I need to get away is all I'm saying and I can't get out of the car and he's still grabbing for me and this is when I began to defend myself and shed Alex at this point when the knife is made in my hand I am trapped between the open door and the middle of the car so where the console would be or the seat you said you grabbed the knife and you hit her stabbing yes many people seemed surprised at how she handled herself during the trial relaxed almost loving it she was also delighted when Jason mangle was called to testify she hadn't seen him in 18 months and well I guess he could say she clearly missed him did you eventually on March 22nd 2018 go looking for the defendant the day of the the day that you saw her at races yes why did you go looking for the defendant something did not seem right dile go to Alice's first and then go out of town afterwards and when you went to Alex's what did you see from the outside I saw her car idling at his in his driveway but in the end would the jury find her to be victim of a brutal assaults or cold-blooded killer the jury returned its verdict after tree errors guilty of first-degree murder but one thing I did hear late November I didn't know what what prompted me to do it but I wrote her a letter at the jail and a couple three weeks later the 6th of December she responded with a big brown envelope and a letter and two different pieces of art like I've never seen before she drew him herself that was the nicest art I've ever seen and one of the nicest letters I've ever seen yeah after I read them all I wish you guys could see them others I still have them we continued on and now there's five total letters back and forth I sure wish you could see them but that first letter I got don't happen too easy for me but what brought me to tears the letter I got from her we all make mistakes in this world if you haven't you haven't done much but hopefully we learn by the mistakes the courts analysis family most of all Alex's parents I want to say how sorry I am that they have lost their son but sorry doesn't cut it in my mind that word is not enough and never will be enough for this loss and I recognize that I don't think I could ever find words that will be enough to express this especially to them the pain they feel is unimaginable I want to express how sorry I am for this loss because it is such a great loss I recognize and completely acknowledge this paint and I'm so sorry I love Alex very much and I also feel a great loss and I'm so sorry thank you for letting me say this thank you all right well we know is that she boiled over at some point killed Alex Wentworth and it was not in self-defense and she lied about what happened which is frankly not that uncommon I am gonna sentence Ms McCandless to life in prison and the Wisconsin prison system and I'm going to set the date that she would be eligible for petitioning the court for extended supervision at 50 years it's a long time but the way I reason this at mrs. McCandless if she does what she's supposed to do follows the rules that she at least has some light at the end of a very long tunnel she was sentenced in February 2020 she got life in prison she must serve a minimum of 50 years before she is eligible for parole when she will be over 70 years old [Music] Asura's family set up a fundraiser for her appeal it's deactivated now but it only got a whole fifty books if you'd like you can also visit Asura's Instagram dirt fiend what a name where she had posted her artwork he can also read a statement there from Ezra herself the end of her statement reads what I face now is a mandatory life sentence the journey I will now take is the necessary steps to be re heard in a higher court our goal is this ultimately resulting in a second chance at life and freedom itself the battle for justice has only begun we stand unflinchingly in the truth we will never rest on what we believe in justice in the face of adversity we will be the unrelenting voice of change in the face of prejudice misunderstanding and injustice support a voice of change be a voice of change Ezra J McCandless although that part at the end of her statement it sounds like she may also be a be running for election it sounds like the cliche [ __ ] politicians say but who knows I might not give her my vote though disturbing case tragic Ezra brutally murdered Alex so he would be out of the picture so she can fact get back with Jason I don't think Jason was gonna take her back anyway as I said earlier Ezra was described by people as someone who just loved the attention and she clearly got it and then when Jason wasn't giving her an e she she needed a back and she certainly got a lot of attention during the trial she was loving the spotlight so she got fast fast she also got fifty years in prison so thank you so so much for watching I really really appreciate it if you'd like to watch some more of my videos you can and I will see you as always real soon in the next video take care yourselves my cam [Music] you

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,986,912

Rating: 4.8929086 out of 5

Keywords: that chapter, ezra mccandless, mccandless trial, ezra mccandless trial, alex woodworth, ezra McCandless verdict, ezra mcandless alex woodworth, jason mengel, ezra mccandless documentary

Id: U0MvX7e45-k

Length: 28min 5sec (1685 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/sharkfest473]

I love this channel.

[u/Bozoso77]

I’m going inside to watch it right now :-) love the channel Mike!! :-)

[u/CeeBee29]

I really enjoy Mikes episodes look forward to them. Just enough tongue in cheek to make the horror somewhat bearable!

[u/Firlotgirding]

For extra hipster points,Bon Iver had the first record release at that coffee shop.