An 86-year-old man who had been living under an alias in Texas was arrested this month in connection to a 1980 murder in a mining town in Idaho. Now he’s facing the death penalty.
Walter James Mason, who had been going by Walter James Allison, was wanted on a first-degree murder charge after allegedly shooting rancher Daniel Mason Woolley in Clayton, Idaho on Sept. 22, 1980 during a fight outside a bar, according to the Idaho State Journal.
The incident began around 10 p.m. at the Sports Club bar where a man, later identified as Mason was verbally and physically assaulting a woman believed to be his wife.
Woolley and two other men escorted Mason out of the bar and a fight ensued. At one point Mason allegedly walked back to his truck and retrieved two pistols. He returned to the outside of the bar and shot Woolley in the side of the head. He then allegedly reentered the bar and fired several more shots, hitting one of the other men who had fought with him in the shoulder. The two surviving fighters managed to take Mason’s guns away but he still squirmed away and fled the scene.
Mason wasn’t seen in Idaho again until he was back in the custody of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office this month.
At the time authorities said in court documents that Mason, a hunting guide, had fled into the back country on foot and escaped to Montana or Nevada.
The Custer County Sheriff’s Office said deputies traveled to Texas after Mason was arrested there. The reason for his arrest was not released, but the sheriff’s office did confirm that he was identified by fingerprints.
In his initial court appearance, Mason pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
“I have been anticipating an arrest in this case for quite some time and I am very glad for the victim’s family,” Crystal Douglas of East Idaho Cold Cases Inc. said. “I look forward to the justice process in Custer County as this case continues to unfold.”