`Always Nice' Kid Charged In Quadruple Murder

THERMOPOLIS, Wyo. - The murders of Becky Wiley and two of her sons apparently went smoothly, police say. But 10-year-old Willy was more difficult - he fled, only to be dragged back into the house and shot in the head.

Then the murderer set his family's mobile home ablaze, according to authorities.

The boy who is charged with doing all this - Jamie Wiley, 15 - was known by friends and neighbors as a lifeguard, honor student and student-council leader, a clean-cut teenager with "a million-dollar smile," church-goer, baritone horn player in the high-school band, a talented wrestler.

"A good kid," said high-school secretary Bobbi Miller. "The side I saw was happy, not moody. He was always nice, had a cute smile. You just think you're going to know something like that. But not with this kid."

But Ellie Creek, sister of the slain woman, insists that "how kids act at school is different from how they act at home.

"He is a bully. I thought he was selfish, spoiled. The community attitude is, `He's such a good kid, it's impossible he could do this.' When the general public finds out more, they'll be able to grip the situation better."

This month the teenager pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of mental disease and deficiency. Trial was set for Sept. 9.

The public record on the case is scant. At first, police announced they had a juvenile suspect in custody for the killings of Jamie's stepmother, Becky Wiley, 34; his brother Jesse Lee Wiley, 13, stepbrother Willy Lee Brady, 10, and half-brother Tyrone Wiley, 5.

It wasn't until March, when a judge decided to try Jamie as an adult, that his name was revealed.

The complaint gives details of Jamie's activities starting last Nov. 23, the day before the shootings. It alleges he and three friends broke into a pool where he worked as a lifeguard, went swimming and stole cash and candy bars.

Jim Mecca, who owns the swimming complex, says he saw Wiley fleeing the pool area late that night. They exchanged hellos, and when Mecca went to the front counter, he found $160 was missing from the petty-cash box.

The teenager had a key to a room at the nearby Holiday Inn and the three spent the night there, the complaint says.

The next morning Jamie's friends drove him to wrestling practice, where Coach LeRoy Hayes said the 135-pound athlete was in good spirits and fine shape.

"He said he felt good. He ran two miles in 13 or 14 minutes. He talked about an upcoming wrestling match in Powell," the coach said. "He was a real hard-working wrestler. He had set goals to be state champion. He probably would have been a state champion before he graduated."

After practice, Jamie's friends dropped him off at his house and left, according to the complaint. He allegedly argued with his stepmother, got a shotgun and fired - first at his stepmother, then two brothers. He ran out of ammunition when he got to Willy, the document said.

"He reloaded the weapon and went to look for . . . Willy," according to the complaint. "He caught the 10-year-old in the front yard and dragged him back into the home. . . . He then shot him in the head with the shotgun."

His first attempt to start a fire in the living room was unsuccessful, but he found an aerosol can and used it as an accelerant, the complaint says.

With the house aflame, Jamie bypassed neighbors and drove more than a mile to call firefighters from a friend's house, authorities have said.

The complaint does not suggest a motive for the slayings. But relatives say the family was in turmoil. The Wileys were married eight years ago, she bringing one son from a previous marriage and he bringing two. Five years ago, Mrs. Wiley bore another son.

Unable to get along with his stepmother, Jamie left home last summer to live with his natural mother in Florida. He came back to live with his father and the rest of the family a few weeks before the killings took place.

Lisa Klingelhoets, Willy's aunt, says Jamie was jealous of his siblings. "He never accepted Becky. It seems as though he could never get enough of his father's attention. Becky's family says he had pulled a gun on them before."

Others say Becky Wiley couldn't control Jamie or earn his respect. "She said, `If I just keep showing him love, he'll come around.'. . . He came around all right - with a gun," said Creek, Becky's 27-year-old sister.

His father, a fishing and hunting guide, says nothing. "This is my son's future we're talking about. I have no comment at all," Mike Wiley said.

The murders - and the arrest of Jamie Wiley - have shaken Thermopolis, a close-knit town of 3,800, best known for its mineral hot springs.

"I feel something flipped in him. I never thought he had a violent bone in his body," said Mecca, the pool owner.

"He was pretty much a wonderful kid," said Margaret Stansill, Jamie's guidance counselor at Hot Springs County High School. "There were no identifying red flags. Nothing to lead you to believe he had problems."