Last month, the California Court of Appeals upheld the verdicts, which had been appealed in light of a U.S. Supreme Court case that the use of “testimonial” hearsay-out-of-court statements of other persons obtained for use in prosecution, as to which the declarant cannot be cross-examined-violates the Confrontation Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The police had tapes of Wahlert discussing the crimes, but because Wahlert did not take the stand, Garrison argued on appeal that she could not confront an accuser. The appeals court disagreed, saying the Supreme Court case did not apply here.

Wahlert was living in an RV on property belonging to a friend’s father, and Garrison was a periodit overnight guest. However, court testimony revealed that Garrison and Wahlert argued frequently and she would leave for days at a time to be with Willison.

Willison and Garrison were methamphetamine users and on one occasion while Willison was buying drugs, Garrison told another friend, Jon Ramirez, that she had a plan to rob Willison.

She wanted to give his truck to Wahlert and the two of them would head to Las Vegas to get married. Another time, Wahlert told Ramirez that he wanted “to take everything (Willison) had.”

On January 14, 2001, Garrison and Wahlert, who referred to each other as “Bonnie and Clyde,” made good on their threats.

Willison had just finished smoking meth with Ramirez when Wahlert and Garrison showed up at Ramirez’s home and Wahlert pulled a gun.

Pleading with Wahlert to spare his life because he had two children, Wahlert told him to shut up and gagged his victim. Garrison then taped his hands and mouth with duct tape.

According to Ramirez, who admitted not doing anything to stop the assault, Wahlert never threatened Garrison. It appeared to Ramirez that Wahlert and Garrison were “working together.”

While Garrison took the keys to the truck she coveted for her “Clyde,” Wahlert directed Willison to get in. The trio then drove to a secluded Riverside County area where Willison was shot twice, beaten and repeatedly stabbed.

Then, less than an hour after the the intial attack, Wahlert returned to check on Willison and found him still breathing, according to investigators’ testimony. He had managed to crawl about six feet from where he had been shot. That’s when Wahlert stabbed Willison, according to testimony. A jogger found his body a little over a week later.

After killing Willison, the couple returned to Ramirez’s home and gave him Willison’s ring and a necklace as “compensation to help you out for what went on,” he testified.

They tried to use one of Willison’s credit cards to buy gas for the truck, but it was denied. The couple fled when the attendant went to call police.

Wahlert told another friend that he had taken the truck “from a dude that he killed.” He only intended “to rob the guy and stuff got out of hand.”

The friend testified that Wahlert told him “he shot him, stabbed him, and split.”

A few days later, Wahlert called Ramirez to let him know he and Garrison were heading to Vegas, and asked Ramirez to take care of Willison’s body, which had been left under a tarp.

On January 20, in a drug-induced haze, Wahlert was arrested for brandishing a firearm. While he was being booked, he commented, “I’m looking at 60 years, they just haven’t found out the half of it yet.”

Police found all sorts of incriminating evidence in the truck, including blue jeans with Willison’s blood on them, a payroll check made out to Willison and business cards for his painting business.

After the jogger reported the gruesome find in the rocks outside Temecula, California, the police realized that Willison’s truck had been impounded and found his Social Security Card in the property taken from Wahlert.

Under questioning, Wahlert admitted the crime and wrote a letter to Willison’s children confessing the crime. He told authorities that Garrison was there, but not responsible. She was picked up for interrogation.

Still under the impression that Garrison was only a witness — she would only admit to being in the truck at the scene of the crime — police arranged for Wahlert and her to talk via cell phone.

“During the call, Wahlert and Garrison each made statements directly or indirectly implicating themselves and each other,” wrote the California appellate court.

They began to fight over the phone, with Garrison denying Wahlert’s claims that she told him to “do it.”

“You didn’t tell me to do it?” Wahlert asked as investigators listened in.

“Nope!” Garrison replied.

“Oh, that’s cold, all right,” he responded. “My life’s over because I cared about you.”

“Well, then, you shouldn’t have done it,” she said.

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Wahlert told the investigators that Garrison had “used me to get this dude done.” He then told authorities that she had taped Willison’s wrists.

Garrison also bragged to friends about her role in the killing, but continued to deny participating to police.

At one point she claimed that she was as much a victim as Willison, and that she went along with the plan because she was afraid Wahlert would kill her, too.

The two juries took less than three hours to return guilty verdicts against the pair.

It was clear to the appeals judges that Garrison was a willing and active participant in the murder, as well as the events leading up to it.

“As to her participation in the murder, whether as a direct perpetrator or as an aider and abettor of Wahlert’s actions, the evidence of Garrison’s guilt was overwhelming without regard to Wahlert’s statements,” their decision states.

Deputy District Attorney Sara Danville told the jury Garrison manipulated Wahlert into shooting Willison because she knew Wahlert was a violent man. “She did that knowing what he would do,” she said.

According to a probation officer’s report, Garrison began using alcohol and methamphetamine at 12, injected heroin three times a week and smoked marijuana daily.

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer

RIVERSIDE ---- Depending on whose story is to be believed, Michael Willison of Temecula was killed nearly three years ago either because an attempt to rob him went bad or one of the accused killers was jealous.

"We'll probably never really know why it happened," Deputy District Attorney Sara Danville said Tuesday

That is because the only people who know the truth, Danville said, are the 39-year-old victim and a man and woman charged with Willison's murder.

Willison's body was found Jan. 23, 2001, by a jogger in the area of Highway 74 and Briggs Road in the Homeland area, partially hidden under a pickup bedliner. He had been shot twice in the head and stabbed five times, including once in the neck.

Joshua Blaine Wahlert, 26, and Tracey Leean Garrison, 22, both from the Hemet area, are on trial on first-degree murder charges in connection with Willison's slaying. If convicted, both could be sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors allege that Wahlert was the one who fired the shots and stabbed Willison four times, with Garrison later stabbing Willison in the neck when they found him still alive.

Danville says Garrison was in a relationship with both men and that she is the one who orchestrated the Jan. 15, 2001, robbery of the victim.

Garrison's attorney, David Gunn, contends that his client was deathly afraid of Garrison and only stabbed Willison because of that fear.

Frank Peasley, Wahlert's attorney, is hoping a jury will agree with his belief that the murder was done in a jealous rage.

Danville doesn't disagree that there may have been a "love triangle" involving the three. But, she says she is convinced that the motive for Willison's murder was greed.

"(Garrison) was seeing both of these guys at the same time," Danville said after Tuesday's testimony concluded. "It was her idea to do the robbery. They thought (Willison) had more than he did because they knew he was a commercial painter and had this nice truck."

According to testimony presented when the trial started last week, Danville said that the whole thing started at a home near Leon Road and Highway 74, where the defendants bound Willison's hands with duct tape, forced a bandanna in Willison's mouth and covered his mouth with more duct tape.

Willison was then forced at gunpoint to a remote location near some rocks off Highway 74 and killed, the prosecutor said.

On Tuesday, friends of both defendants were called by the prosecution to tell jurors what they had been told happened.

Vernon Wood originally failed to appear on a subpoena to testify in the case and was arrested. He testified Tuesday clad in an orange jail jumpsuit and handcuffed and shackled.

Wood told jurors that he had know Garrison for about five years before the slaying, but only knew Wahlert ---- who is known by the nickname "Bam Bam" ---- for about a month.

He said the two came to the San Jacinto mobile home where he lived at the time in a green pickup. Wood testified that Wahlert said it belonged to someone he had just killed.

Wahlert also said that they had gone to rob Willison "and stuff just got out of hand." Wahlert asked him if he knew where he could find a 50-gallon drum and wanted him to help "bury the dude," Wood said.

In early February 2001, Garrison "spilled her guts" and told him that the killing was her idea, Wood testified. Wood said she told him that she felt bad because a story she had told Wahlert that Willison had sexually assaulted her wasn't true.

As Wood told jurors that, Wahlert ---- who is in a wheelchair after back surgery ---- looked down and shook his head.

During questioning from the two defense attorneys, Wood said he was high on methamphetamine when the two showed up and he first learned about the killing. He also said Garrison looked scared that day and never told him about what happened.

Gunn, Garrison's attorney, also questioned why Wahlert, who barely knew him, would admit to a murder and seek his help.

Tiffany Walls, who called Garrison "my best friend," also testified Tuesday. She said that Garrison told her that "Josh shot some dude" and that "he made her cut his throat."

Walls testified that she determined on her own, not by anything her friend told her, that "Bam Bam was jealous because (Willison) was taking better care of her that he was."

While Garrison's attorney was questioning her, Walls said that she once saw Wahlert become angry at Garrison and elbow her in the face.

When Peasley, Wahlert's attorney, questioned her about testifying because she didn't want Garrison, her friend, to get in trouble or be convicted, Walls responded that she feels people should be responsible when they have done something wrong.

"But I don't feel (Garrison) is guilty of what she's being charged for," Walls said. "Somehow, (Wahlert) made her do it."