Man had beat up mother before murdering 4 family members near Casa Grande, documents say

CASA GRANDE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- Court documents revealed the moments leading to the death of four family members, including a five-year-old niece in an otherwise quiet Pinal County community over the weekend.

According to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, the man’s sister called 911 around 1:45 p.m. Sunday afternoon after some sort of domestic dispute at a home near McCartney and Bel Air roads. During the call, she said that her brother, identified as Richard Wilson Jr, 21, had just beaten up their mother as well as their father and a related five-year-old girl in the house. Dispatchers said the sister was frantic and that you can hear screaming over and over again until the call disconnected. Deputies arrived about 12 minutes later.

As deputies tried to make contact, they noticed a man leaving the fifth-wheel trailer and told deputies: “I’m over here, take me to jail.” Wilson was asked if anyone was inside, to which he replied “go check”. Deputies said they found Wilson with injuries to his right hand and bloody clothing and shoes inside the trailer. That’s where they discovered that four people inside the house had been murdered. Wilson’s father, 47-year-old Richard Wilson, his mother, 50-year-old Ellen Otterman, his sister, 16-year-old Rudy Wilson, and his niece, Renaya White all appeared to have been stabbed in the neck with a knife.

After Wilson was arrested, he asked for multiple prescribed medications. Investigators attempted to conduct an interview with him, but he declined to answer without having an attorney present. Records showed that this was the tenth call to the home in the last three years. Two of those calls were mental health-related and two others were welfare checks.

Richard Wilson was a maintenance employee for the Casa Grande Elementary School District, and ReNaya White had just started kindergarten at Desert Willow Elementary School. The school’s superintendent, Adam Leckie, released a statement on behalf of the staff and student body about the loss of the two.

It is with profound sadness that yesterday afternoon we were made aware of the tragic deaths of one of our Desert Willow students, ReNaya White, and maintenance employee Richard Wilson. This is an incredible loss to our CGESD family and will be a difficult time for all of us. Richard worked for CGESD for the last two years. He was well-liked by his co-workers and was known to be devoted to his family. ReNaya just started kindergarten at Desert Willow and was described as a happy, energetic, curious, loving girl. They will be missed greatly by all who knew them.

CGESD has made available counseling services to the school throughout this week for any child or staff member who needs someone to talk to. We will be in contact with other providers to supply ongoing support to our CGESD community as well as to the family that was directly impacted by this tragedy.

We are heartbroken by this seemingly senseless act of violence but are committed to taking care of our students and staff members during this time.

Respectfully,

A few neighbors stopped by the home Tuesday evening, leaving candles and balloons. “We heard about it on the news. We thought something like this affects the whole community and such a tragic thing to happen to young people, it’s a sad thing. Just thought we’d pay our respects to the little one,” Ronald Calhoun, a neighbor, said.

Wilson was booked on four counts of first-degree murder and is being held on a $2.5 million bond.

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