Wounding of Ex-Officer Who Testified for Defense at Penn Trial Still a Puzzle

The investigation into the wounding of Doyle A. Wheeler, a former San Diego police lieutenant who testified against a fellow officer in the Sagon Penn police-shooting case, continued Wednesday, with San Diego police saying a note left at the scene was written in Wheeler’s handwriting.

That revelation adds yet another element to the bizarre incident, which occurred Tuesday in the small community of Suncrest, about 15 miles north of Spokane, Wash. Three men purportedly burst into Wheeler’s home while his two children were at school and his wife was out of town.

According to accounts from police, both in Washington and San Diego, Wheeler was found tied up in his home Tuesday afternoon after he had called the emergency 911 number. He had what appeared to be cigarette burns on his body, a grazing bullet wound behind his ear and his old San Diego Police Department badge pinned to his shirt. He reportedly used his tongue to dial the emergency number.

More Than One Note

Also found was the note. Police have declined to reveal its contents and have refused to confirm a report by San Diego television station KFMB that the note said, “This is a pay back.”

What police in San Diego will say is that it appears there may be more than one note and that Wheeler wrote one of them. Wheeler, 36, retired from the force after 10 years because of a stress-related disability. In 1985 he attempted suicide.

Wheeler was taken to a Spokane-area hospital, which officials refused to identify. But, according to a dispatcher with the Stevens County Sheriff’s Department, which is handling the investigation, Wheeler was released from the hospital Wednesday. Efforts to contact Wheeler at his home were unsuccessful. According to neighbors, Wheeler returned to his home briefly, gathered some belongings and left quickly.

According to an account Wednesday in the Spokane Spokesman-Review, Wheeler--his head bandaged and face marked with cuts--drove to the Spokane County Public Safety Building, where he was fingerprinted to aid in the investigation.

‘Intended to Kill Me’

“They intended to kill me and thought they killed me,” he told the newspaper. He denied shooting himself, saying it would have been impossible to both shoot and bind himself. He said he was joining his family at a safe hiding place. “It was absolutely physically impossible for me to do it to myself. It’s impossible to hog-tie and shoot yourself,” he said.

In an interview Wednesday, Wheeler told the Spokane newspaper he was targeted for death because of his role in the Penn case.

“I know it had something to do with that,” he said. “I know who is responsible for that. If Jacobs isn’t responsible for this, then somebody is framing Jacobs, and it’s not me.”

Donovan Jacobs was the police officer wounded by Penn in the altercation in which another police officer was slain and a civilian also wounded. Wheeler offered trial testimony that was highly critical of Jacobs’ performance as a police officer.

Wheeler told the Spokane paper that the three gunmen forced him to write a postdated letter apologizing for testifying against Jacobs and saying that he lied in court. Wheeler said he was forced to swear this on his mother’s grave. He said he pressed so hard on the paper that the writing left an impression on the next page.

He told the newspaper that he was forced to lie face down on a couch and that a gunman placed a pillow over the gun to muffle the sound of a shot.

“I had my head turned over far enough so that, when the gun went off, it (the bullet) went through my ear from the back to the front,” Wheeler told the paper.

“I played dead,” he said. “I expected to get another shot at anytime.”

Wheeler said he rolled off the couch to a table, knocked a telephone onto the floor with his head, pressed the disconnect button with his nose, and pushed 911 with his tongue. He said his hands were tied behind his back “very, very tightly.”

He did not show the reporters his burn marks, but he had four minor cuts on his face. Wheeler said he got the cuts when he was slapped by one of the men who wore a ring.

“They came here with the intent to kill me,” the newspaper quoted Wheeler as saying.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s a victim,” said Stevens County prosecuting attorney John G. Wetle. “We are pursuing that and looking for three suspects.”

Wheeler told the paper that his assailants intended to make his slaying look like a “drug rip-off.”

The three men forced their way into his home Tuesday afternoon and took him to the basement, where they beat him, burned him with cigarettes and then shot him, Wheeler told police. Witnesses have told police that, shortly after they heard a gunshot coming from Wheeler’s home, they saw three white men, two described as being in their late 20s, fleeing the house in two cars, one of them Wheeler’s.

Stevens County authorities have issued an all-points bulletin for the three.

In another twist, San Diego television anchorman Michael Tuck, who in commentaries has been critical of police conduct in the Penn case, said that Wheeler called him about 10 days ago and warned him about a death threat he had received against both himself and Tuck.

Tuck said Wheeler had been the target of several death threats in the past because of his testimony at the Penn trial, but that Wheeler took this particular threat much more seriously. The caller making the threat identified himself to Wheeler as a member of the San Diego Police Department who had recently belonged to a small group within the department bent on exacting revenge against Wheeler and Tuck, according to the anchorman.

Casts a Shadow

But Tuck said he is reluctant to believe any police officers are involved. “For all I know,” he said, “it could have been some kook who called Doyle. . . . I’m really reluctant to bring it up because it casts a shadow over the Police Department.

“I don’t think whoever did this is a member of the Police Department, that’s my gut reaction,” Tuck said.

Tuck also said that, since the incident in Washington, a mutual friend has talked to Wheeler, and that Wheeler told the friend to tell Tuck that during the attack the assailants said “they are coming after me next.” Wheeler, according to Tuck, also told the mutual friend that he didn’t recognize his attackers, who did not wear masks.

About two months ago, Wheeler walked into the newsroom of KXLY-TV in Spokane and told people there about the death threats he had been receiving, said Elizabeth Ruggeri, the station’s assignment editor. He described the threats as coming from both former and current members of the San Diego Police Department, she said.

Wheeler said the threats were a result of his March, 1987, testimony in the highly publicized Penn trial. The shootings took place in 1985.