April Rose Wilkens

April Rose Wilkens (born April 25, 1970)^[1] is an American woman serving a life sentence at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma for killing her ex-fiancé and abuser, Terry Carlton, the son of a multimillionaire in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She claimed battered woman syndrome, but was found guilty by a jury. Local Tulsa news stations still to this day will not cover her case due to Carlton's family, owning and operating dealerships which buy ad time from them.^[2][3] Her case caused an "outcry from those who say she acted because of battered woman syndrome."^[4] April Wilkens is featured as starting head of the dog rehabilitation and adoption program in Mabel Basset in the 2015 student documentary Bassett Tails by Friends for Folks.^[5][6][7][8]

Conviction and News Coverage[]

April Wilkens shot Terry Carlton eight times on April 28, 1998, in his Tulsa house. Leading up to the final confrontation, Terry had stalked, beaten, and raped April Wilkens several times prior.^[9] They both had used illegal substances before the killing, Carlton coercing Wilkens to and also raping her.^[10] The Tulsa world reported that the "case drew immediate attention" because Wilkens's defense, battered woman syndrome, was "fairly new and virtually untested in Oklahoma courts." April Wilkens did not take a gun to the house, and stayed there after the killing until police arrived, covering the body with a blanket and making no attempt to make it look like someone else committed the killing. This was consistent with her statement that "she did not feel she did anything wrong."^[11] A neighbor told the jury that April appeared to want to leave town the night before the killing.^[12] April Wilkens was 29 years old when she was convicted of first-degree murder.^[13]

Terry Carlton took April Wilkens on lavish trips and on one occasion attacked her when they were in the Netherlands in 1996.^[14] Carlton was the son of a multimillionaire in Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose father, Don Carlton, was involved with a bribery scandal at Honda.^[15] Don Carlton later sued April for amount of actual and punitive damages after the trial,^[16] but later dropped the charges. The Carltons also agreed to a plea deal of 20 years, but April did not take it, believing she would be found innocent, but it shows that the Carltons are not worried about her as a threat. She has served over 20 years now.^[17] Terry Carlton bragged about paying off the police when April would report his abuse, and the Tulsa police did not enforce a warrant for his arrest, either, before his death.^[18] Tulsa Police would laugh when they would arrive at the scene, saying that she called them so often they eventually thought they would find Wilkens dead. Carlton also owned a police scanner, so he would leave before they got there.^[17] Terry Carlton was the uncle of Justin Carlton Bruton, a suspect in the murder of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen, and supporters of April released evidence dating back to 2008 that Terry Carlton and the Bruton/Carlton family believed that Justin Bruton, not the convicted Byron Case, killed Anastasia and then himself. Terry used WitbolsFeugen's death to intimidate April Wilkens, according to her legal documents.^[19][20] April Wilkens also recorded Terry Carlton admitting to abusing and raping her,^[21] but it was never played at trial, though the then-DA, Tim Harris should have had a copy since she gave one to the Tulsa Police.^[22] A juror after the trial claimed that April was not a good test case for Battered Woman Syndrome, which was untested in Oklahoma courts at the time, and Assistant District Attorney Sharon Ashe claimed "Wilkens is not a classic example of a battered woman." The DA "argued that drug abuse, not domestic abuse, made Wilkens snap."^[23]Wilkens later got her former counselor and Battered Woman Syndrome expert, Lynda Driskell, to sign an affidavit saying that Wilkens's attorney never contacted a key witness for her trial and Driskell also said April's story was consistent with being a battered woman.^{[24] [25]} What is more, a tape where Carlton admitted to raping and abusing her was never played in court and a key witness, Clare Eagan, now a federal judge but a previous attorney for Wilkens, was never asked to testify, leading some to believe Wilkens was poorly represented at her trial.^[26]

Wilkens "filed an application for Post-Conviction Relief in 2003 and 2009, stating her attorney failed to present key evidence on her behalf" and that then-DA Tim Harris "should have been disqualified from prosecuting her case due to this personal relationship with Don Carlton, who afterward contributed to his political campaigns and even held a public reception for him."^[27][28] Harris is the same DA who is associated with the now-exonerated Michelle Murphy and .^{[29] [30]}The now-retired judge on the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Charles Johnson, who recused himself only once on Wilkens's appeals but not for other times, officiated the wedding of Don Carlton and his wife in 1996 (before Terry Carlton's death) and Carlton's granddaughter, Jennifer Elizabeth Bruton.^[31][32]

In March 2022, Wilkens was denied a parole hearing by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board despite being granted a hearing in past applications for parole. Scott Williams, Richard Smothermon, and Edward Konieczny voted against her while Larry Morris was the only board member to vote yes.^[10] This came only days after the only woman on the board, Kelly Doyle, resigned.^[33] The same all-male board at the time that denied her a parole hearing recommended the Crossbow Killer, Jimmie Stohler, be granted parole in the same meeting.^[34] Larry Morris has worked in the past with federal judge Clare Eagan,^[35] who wrote a 2005 affidavit in support of April Wilkens.^[36] It was later uncovered that the current Tulsa DA's office of Steve Kunzweiler protested her parole with a letter stating that they saw her as a threat to public safety and that, if she were sentenced with the same conviction today, she would not be eligible for parole for another 17 years due to changes in sentencing for first-degree murder.^[37] This overlooks the fact that another woman's Oklahoma case, shortly after Wilkens's trial, argued the same defense (Battered Woman Syndrome) after killing her husband in his sleep, was sentenced to only four years only to have that conviction overturned a year later.^{[38] [39]} Steve Kunzewiler's wife also donated to the previous Tim Harris campaign and Kunzweiler worked under Tim Harris.^{[40] [41]}

See also[]

• Byron Case
• Clare Eagan
• Tim Harris
• Steve Kunzweiler
• Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board

References[]

External links[]

• https://aprilwilkensblog.wordpress.com/
• http://www.stasia.org/case_against/
• http://freebyroncase.com/