A California man has received a life sentence for the murder of his estranged wife, with prosecutors revealing he “took a vacation day” to ambush and kill her.
Kandynn Wilson, 34, stabbed his former spouse, Ericka Wilson, 23 times in the neck after deliberately calling out from work to carry out the killing. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder in December, and he was sentenced this week to life without parole plus one year for the 2022 killing in Spring Valley. The couple had been married for six years and shared a child before their separation.
“This Defendant murdered his estranged wife in cold blood displaying a vicious brutality in lying in wait and stabbing her multiple times,” San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a press release announcing Kandynn Wilson’s sentencing.
On Jan. 27, 2022, Kandynn Wilson “took a vacation day from work” and drove from Oakland to his estranged wife’s workplace to wait for her to leave “so he could ambush her in the parking lot,” according to the DA press release. He ended up driving to the wrong location first, then made his way to Ericka Wilson’s apartment complex to lie in wait for her in the parking lot.
“He reclined his seat and waited for her to return from work,” the DA press release says. “As Ericka Wilson pulled into the parking area and began to get out of her vehicle, the defendant approached her wearing a ski mask. He grabbed her and carried out a brutal stabbing attack, inflicting 23 wounds to her neck.”
Officers responded to the apartment complex, located in the 1600 block of Canyon Drive in Spring Valley, “for a report of a woman calling for help,” according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. Ericka Wilson, 29, had managed to call 911 during the attack as she desperately tried to escape Kandynn Wilson.
“A brave neighbor saw the attack, and chased the defendant with a bat, forcing him to flee on foot and leave behind his vehicle, gloves, and murder weapon,” the DA release says.
When officers arrived on scene, they discovered Ericka Wilson bleeding in the parking lot. “She had obvious traumatic injuries,” the sheriff’s office said in a Jan. 29, 2022, press release. “Deputies and firefighters conducted lifesaving measures on the woman, but unfortunately she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
Kandynn Wilson was found and arrested hours later at a 7-Eleven just blocks from the crime scene. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, multiple domestic violence incidents had occurred between him and Ericka Wilson throughout their relationship. Prosecutors stated in a sentencing brief obtained by the newspaper that Kandynn Wilson had spent months planning his wife’s murder.
His original plan involved purchasing a gun and shooting Ericka Wilson to death. He drove eight hours from his Oakland home to Spring Valley to ambush her at the Ross department store where she worked. Because Ericka Wilson worked at two different Ross locations, that is what caused the earlier mix-up.
When officers located Kandynn Wilson, he was “covered in Ericka’s blood,” according to the DA release.
“Intimate partner violence continues to be one of the most common and dangerous forms of violence we confront, and this case is a stark reminder of its devastating impact,” DA Stephan said.
A “sympathy message” written on an online memorial page for Ericka Wilson reads, “There was & never will be anyone else like her. Ericka was smart and funny and hard working and determined and loyal and I’m so thankful to have known her in the way I did, she will be close to my heart always.”
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