Man Re-Booked in Boy’s Slaying

The man who reported finding the body of a 3-year-old boy stabbed to death in Spring Valley was arrested again in that case Saturday night by sheriff’s homicide detectives.

Taken into custody and held without bail was Timothy D. Wilson, 22, described by Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Baxter as a transient laborer who most recently lived in the 8100 block of Brampton Avenue in Spring Valley.

Wilson was arrested at 6 p.m. at the Spring Valley car wash where he worked. He did not resist arrest, Baxter said.

The suspect was taken to the Lemon Grove sheriff’s substation for questioning and then booked at the downtown jail on suspicion of murder.

Baxter said his investigators focused on Wilson after the Sheriff’s Department received a number of tips from the public after widespread media coverage of the youngster’s slaying about 9 p.m. Thursday.

Motive for the killing was not known.

The boy, Luke Wayne Mackey, was stabbed numerous times in his torso before being dumped into a trash bin behind a store in the 500 block of Sweetwater Road.

The boy, son of Dorothy Mackey, 28, had been taken to a grocery store at the shopping center by his mother’s boyfriend, Roddy G. Proctor, 40, who had told detectives that the youngster disappeared while they were inside shopping.

About 10 p.m. Thursday, the Sheriff’s Department received a phone call from Wilson, who said he had found the boy’s body.

Wilson was arrested at the scene for public drunkenness after he became increasingly belligerent with authorities, but he was not a suspect in the killing then, Baxter said.

Investigators later found that Wilson had several outstanding traffic warrants, but he was released and returned to work Saturday.

Baxter declined to discuss what tips led to Wilson’s arrest, except to say that “enough information” from residents led to Wilson.