TYLER, Texas — Two survivors of the 2021 church shooting that killed an East Texas pastor, including the man’s wife, took the stand before jurors as the first day of trial began Monday.
Mytrez Woolen, 25, is charged with capital murder in connection with the death of Pastor Mark McWilliams on Jan. 3, 2021, at Starrville Methodist Church in Winona. He is also accused of injuring church elder William "Mike" Sellars. The state is not seeking the death penalty for Woolen because he has a "verified mental illness."
According to an arrest affidavit, McWilliams and his wife Rosemary found Woolen hiding in the church bathroom in the morning of Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021. McWilliams told Woolen, who was holding the church's money bag, to leave the church.
Woolen rushed toward McWilliams and the two began fighting on the ground. Woolen took the gun from the pastor and shot him several times in the chest, killing the pastor.
Rosemary remembered that she and her husband likely came to the church around 9 a.m. Jan. 3, 2021 because the printer needed toner. Normally, they would've gotten there a little later. She was unaware of the police pursuit that happened the night before that Sunday.
She recalled hearing her husband say, "what are you doing here?" and he started backing up slowly. She then saw a man come out of the bathroom. Rosemary identified Woolen as the person who came out of the restroom.
Rosemary or Mark McWilliams did not give Woolen permission to be in the church, she testified.
Once she saw Woolen had the bank money bag, she believed Woolen came to the church to take other items as well and she picked up a hammer. She could hear her husband saying, "get down, get down." She remembered Woolen saying "don't hit me with a hammer," but she hadn't threatened him with the hammer.
She was in the doorway of the kitchen when she heard the first gunshot. She knows that her husband and Woolen were struggling over the gun, but she did not see who had the gun and she didn't see Woolen actually shoot her husband.
Rosemary said she could smell the fired bullet, and she thought she was shot. At that point, she fell to her knees and dropped the hammer she had. When she was able to get to her husband, he was already deceased.
Rosemary, who was a respiratory therapist, noticed that his chest had blood all over it and his skin was starting to turn blue.
She remembered dropping the hammer she had as the second shot hit off, thinking that she couldn't bring herself to hurt someone even if her husband was dying.
Rosemary testified after Pastor McWilliams was shot the first time, he was not a danger to anyone.
She said they were married for 13 years when he was shot. Her husband was a chaplain at a hospice prior to coming to Starrville Methodist.
"He was the best chaplain I've ever seen. We went to funerals together and we went to some homes together if a lady needed comfort or prayer. I was with him a lot," she said. "We ministered side-by-side all the time."
She added that they had a Tuesday prayer service together at Starrville, saying that they did everything together.
"When he asked me to marry him, he said, 'will you be my coveted prayer partner forever? He was my rock. We prayed every morning together. He was a man of God. People could see that he was serious about his faith," Rosemary said.
Sellars testified McWilliams told Sellars to call 911 while McWilliams was holding Woolen at gunpoint. Sellars went back to his motorcycle to get his phone and he called 911.
When he came back to the door, Sellars told the jury that Woolen shot him twice as soon as he saw Sellars. Sellars said he ran toward the other end of the church to avoid getting shot again.
"As I was running away, I could feel the bullets hitting me," Sellars said.
Woolen came out of the fellowship hall, where McWilliams was, and he followed Sellars to keep shooting at him, Sellars testified.
Sellars testified he was shot a total of six times, including four times as he was running away. Sellars said Woolen left the church, took another church member's truck and drove away.
Sellars said he remembers, "going in and out of consciousness, and calling on the Lord to help me." He added that he woke up in the ambulance for a brief minute. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the ICU a day or two later.
He underwent three surgeries to treat the gunshot wounds. The bullet clipped a radial nerve in his arm, causing it to be in a sling for some time. He also cannot fully move one of his arms to this day.
Sellars, who had a gun on him at the time, said he never took out his gun, pointed the firearm or shot it at Woolen.
Sellars said Woolen got into the church building by breaking a window overnight. No leader within the church gave Woolen permission to enter the church. Sellars later learned that Woolen was found with the church's bank bag and McWilliams' gun.
Before Sellars or Rosemary’s testimony, law enforcement took the stand to share details about the vehicle pursuit that Woolen led officers on the night of Jan. 2, 2021.
The vehicle was seen in the Best Western Hotel/McDonald's parking lot in Lindale with a shotgun out of the window in the evening of Jan. 2, but police say the driver evaded arrest and drove onto Interstate 20.
Former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Kevin Lybrand’s dash cam video from the evening of Jan. 2, 2021 was shown to the jury as he looks for the vehicle moving north on FM 849. During the video, the vehicle was located and Lybrand joined the pursuit alongside Smith County Sheriff's Office deputies. As the pursuit continued, it headed onto I-20 and law enforcement moved eastbound looking for the vehicle that has yet to be found.
The vehicle was spotted cutting into a grass median at the I-20 intersection of FM 14, and then the driver almost immediately got back on I-20. Lybrand said the suspect and other drivers on I-20 were at risk because of the suspect's dangerous driving.
In most portions of the pursuit, Lybrand testified that his vehicle was maxed out at 130 mph. The chase really could've been fatal for anyone involved. The suspect vehicle ran a red traffic light in addition to driving recklessly.
The vehicle was seen moving through an intersection, striking traffic signs, running into a yard and clipping the porch of a house. Lybrand struck the vehicle and disabled it. He then recalled seeing the driver run off into the woods, Lybrand testified.
Lybrand said he and other officers went into the woods to search for the suspect, and Lybrand also called for additional resources, including K-9 support and drones, to the area.
While looking through documents inside the vehicle, Lybrand said he found an Internal Revenue Service document with Woolen's name on it. A photo on an unlocked phone was later identified as Woolen by comparing his driver's license photo.
The video shows Starrville Methodist Church in the area as officers are searching for Woolen in the woods. Law enforcement spent several hours searching for Woolen, but it was called off around midnight Jan. 3, 2021, Lybrand said.
At the end of Monday afternoon, the prosecution then showed dash cam video of police pursuing the vehicle that Woolen had stolen from the church parking lot. The vehicle was stopped via ONSTAR technology disabling it in the Marshall area, Marshall Police Department Lt. Nikki King testified.
King testified that there was no blood on Woolen when he was arrested. The Smith County Sheriff's Office was notified that Woolen was in custody.
Woolen had been found incompetent to stand trial in December 2021, but this year, officials revealed he was returned to mental competency after receiving treatment at a mental hospital.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday.