Suspect arrested in Mérida murder of American expatriate

Defendant "confessed a crime of passion," reports The Yucatan Times

"Lo maté porque no quería acostarse con él - I killed him because I didn't want to go to bed with him" - José Raymundo Xool Villamil, in Mérida courtroom

*Updated Feb. 15 -new revelations below*
Mérida, Yucatán -
Police have arrested a suspect in a brutal knifing attack which left a long term resident of the city’s foreign community dead.

Neighbors found Sam Woodruff, 63, originally from Boonville, North Carolina, gravely wounded in his Colonia Itzimina home early on Nov. 12. He had been stabbed five times, and died a short time later at a local hospital

Although details of the case are still unfolding, investigators have said that the murder was sex related, “connected to persons in the gay community” and may have been committed by a male prostitute. As The Yucatan Times and MGRR reported on Nov. 13, police theorized from the outset that Woodruff knew his killer, and had invited him into his home.

In statements before the Public Ministry earlier today, the suspect, 18 year old José Raymundo Xool Villamil, confirmed those suspicions and admitted that he stabbed Woodruff after the two quarreled.

Today’s proceeding was the equivalent of an arraignment or first appearance in U.S. courts. Xool was ordered held for 30 days while the investigation continues. Bail is not granted in murder cases here.

Sam Woodruff (left) had lived in Mérida for about a decade before his death. He was an avid artist of local popularity, and a 1972 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he studied communication arts and design.

Woodruff was the second American to die in Mérida in 2012 at the hands of a gay sex partner. In mid-May former Pennsylvania resident Robert Leon Wickard, 67, was found dead in his rented residence just blocks southwest of the city's main plaza. His decaying corpse had been wrapped in a blanket and was buried in a shallow grave in an interior garden. Forensic experts believe he was killed about 15 days earlier. Several men were living in the house, slowly pawning off his possessions. Police made the gruesome discovery while on patrol.

Four suspects were taken into custody in the Wickard case. One told the court he was a prostitute, and another described himself as a transvestite. The men told prosecutors that Wickard was stabbed during a sudden domestic quarrel. Charges were dismissed against two of them for lack of evidence, but the other men remain in jail facing charges of robbery and murder. Authorities are still searching for a fifth suspect, said to be Wickard’s lover, whom he had met in Campeche some weeks earlier.

Feb. 10 - The suspect in this case, José Raymundo Xool Villamil, has been ordered by a local judge to stand trial for both robbery and first degree murder. When police arrested him last week they found personal papers of Woodruff in his vehicle, together with marijuana. Marijuana was found at the crime scene on Nov. 12. Xool's Ford Windstar minivan was carrying Campeche license plates when he was taken into custody.

Xool has confessed to the homocide, saying that he killed Woodruff after the American solicited sex. The Yucatán state prosecutor disclosed last fall that Woodruff frequently patronized male prostitutes. He was HIV positive, according to the medical examiner's report released by authorities. It's unclear if the men had an ongoing sexual relationship before the murder, but some reports have so suggested.

Xool will be tried later this year.

Feb. 15 - American expatriate murdered in Mérida had sex with 17 year old boy just before his death

May 27 - Gay readers share candid thoughts on gay sex tourism in Mérida - and on gringos
May 26 - Opinion: A revolting way to die – and to live

Jan. 18. - "Violence on Yucatán soil" - against foreigners
Dec. 30 - Six weeks after murder of American in Mérida, no arrests, no suspects, no developments
Nov. 12 - Another American resident murdered in Mérida

Mérida's main plaza has long been a staging ground for foreigner+local assignations, gay and straight

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