Derek Sales was sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas for the murder of Willie York
According to court documents Derek Sales was serving a seventy five year prison sentence for sexual assault and kidnapping when he managed to escape. Sales would go too the home of wheelchair bound Willie York who would be murdered. Sales would be arrested the next day still inside of the home
Derek Sales would be convicted and sentenced to death
Derek Sales Photos
Derek Sales Now
ADC Number
000968
Name:
Sales, Derek
Race
BLACK
Sex
MALE
Hair Color
SALT & PEPPER
Eye Color
BROWN
Height
71 inches
Weight
222 lbs.
Birth Date
01/08/1961
Initial Receipt Date
01/29/1986
Facility
Varner Supermax
Derek Sales Case
The jury was presented with the following facts. Willie York was murdered in his home shortly after 11:30 p.m. on April 16, 2005. York ran his own small business of selling liquor out of his home. Bradley County is a dry county, and he sold beer by the can. His business was described by witnesses as “bootlegging.” York used a cigar box as a cash register and kept the cigar box close to his person. Sales was aware of this, and he purchased several beers from York on the day of his murder. York also kept personal papers in the cigar box.
York suffered from advanced rheumatoid arthritis and needed assistance in caring for himself. He weighed 102 pounds, had little use of his hands, and could not walk. He spent most of his time in his living room where he had a bed and a recliner. While awake, he sat in his recliner. While there, he wished to be able to look outside his home, so he always kept the shades up until he was moved from his recliner and placed in bed for the night. He typically went to bed at 10:00 p.m., at the close of his business day.
Derek Sales arrived at the York home on April 16 at about 1:00 p.m. He had been there often over the last year. That day, Sales asked York’s wife Gracie if they would be gone that evening. Sales left the York home a couple of times that day but each time returned.
That night, York’s family left the home at about 6:30 p.m. to attend a basketball tournament. York remained at home. Derek Sales was present, and no other person was there with York when the family left.
The family kept track of how York was doing throughout that evening by phone calls and visits. His granddaughters left the tournament and brought him dinner about 9:00 p.m. Derek Sales was there. His daughter Lisa visited York’s home about 11:15 p.m. and stayed approximately fifteen minutes. Sales was there. At that time, York was in his recliner, and the window blinds were still up. When Lisa arrived, Sales was talking on the phone. Gracie York testified that her phone billings showed that Derek Sales made phone calls to a woman in Pine Bluff. His girlfriend Shirley Klein, who lives in Pine Bluff, testified that Sales called her from York’s home in the late evening of April 16. She specifically recalled speaking with Sales on the night of April 16 to April 17. A clerk at the nearby Exxon station recalls Sales in the store when his shift started at about 11:30 p.m. New packages of cigarettes were found at the crime scene.
Shortly after Lisa’s visit ended at about 11:30 p.m., she saw her nieces at the nearby Exxon station. She instructed them to go put York to bed. As they drove up to the house, they were surprised that they could not see him. York should have been sitting in his recliner because he had no way to move to the bed. The lights should have been on. A window shade had fallen from its place at the top of the window. They drove closer to the house, and through the window they saw a figure moving about inside. This frightened them, and they called York on their cell phones, but he did not answer. The granddaughters called 911 and then Lisa.
One of the granddaughters, Amanda York, recognized the figure in the house as Sales. Amanda honked the horn, but there was no response. Another granddaughter, Ebony York, also recognized Sales. Amanda reported that he moved to the back of the house, and then back to the front where he peered out the window. She saw his face at this time.
Lisa arrived and could see through the open window that York was not in his chair or his bed. She then saw Derek Sales. She tapped on the window, but Sales did not respond. He was bent over something she could not see. Lisa ran back toward the Exxon station and found her cousin Ricky Hampton. He ran to the house and looked in the window to see Derek Sales bent over something with his arms fully extended while calling out York’s name. Hampton went to the back door but found it locked. He proceeded toward the front of the house. At about this time, Warren police arrived. Officer Tim Cox shined his flashlight into a window and saw a figure crouched as if trying to stay out of view. He also tried the back door. Upon hearing someone say “he’s coming out the front door,” Cox went around front. There he confronted Sales on the front porch. When someone said “he’s dead,” Sales bolted and Cox pursued. Cox tackled Sales, and by this time Ricky Hampton was present and helped Cox subdue Sales.
Warren police officer Robbie Ashcraft arrived and placed cuffs on Derek Sales. Lisa shouted “I thought you were my Daddy’s friend.” According to Officer Jason Michaels, Sales responded with “something like ‘he wasn’t nothin to me.’ ” Michaels then removed Sales from the scene.
York was found lying on the floor with his head in a pool of blood under the recliner footrest. An ambulance was called, and York was pronounced dead at the scene. York was transported to a nearby funeral home and from there to the state crime lab, where an examination revealed that he died of three possible causes: strangulation, blunt force trauma to the head and chest, and a puncture of the jugular vein. A kitchen knife was found not far from where York lay. Testing revealed that blood on the knife matched York’s blood.
When Derek Sales was arrested, he had a large number of coins in his pockets. More coins were found under the seat in the car that was used to transport him to jail. The cigar box was found at the crime scene. It contained twenty-eight cents and no personal papers. A piece of paper containing York’s niece’s Medicaid number was found in Sales’s property when he was processed at the Warren jail facility shortly after his arrest. York’s daughter Sharon testified that the piece of paper had been kept in York’s cigar box. A pack of cigarettes of the type smoked by York was also found on Sales’s person. Blood was found on Sales’s shoes, sock, and pants. Blood on the shoes and knife were tested and “the DNA profile that was obtained from the swab (blood taken from the knife) as well as the swab from the shoe was consistent with or matched the DNA profile that was obtained from the blood sample from York.”
York’s wife Gracie testified that York kept two wallets near him at all times, and that in one he had a $100 bill; however, no $100 bill was found in Sales’s possession. Further, there was evidence that Sales was present when York said he would purchase his granddaughter new wheels for her car that would cost about $1000. As Sales points out in his reply brief, the evidence in this case did not make it clear that Sales knew how York would pay for them. Gracie testified that they had $1300 in cash in the home at that time that would be used for that purpose. The $1300 was in the living room under a scanner sitting atop the television. According to Gracie, so far as she knew, only she and York knew where the money was.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ar-supreme-court/1239196.html
