North Texas stalker who promised to turn ex-girlfriend ‘ugly’ sentenced to life
A Weatherford man who stalked his ex-girlfriend for years and repeatedly threatened to kill her and her cousin was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison.
A Parker County jury needed just 30 minutes to convict Robert Thomas Wahl, 51, of stalking, and the same jurors took 15 minutes to sentence him to life in prison.
Wahl told his ex-girlfriend in dozens of emails that he was watching her, was armed, was coming for her and knew where she was.
Wahl was a habitual offender with previous convictions for indecency with a child, burglary of a habitation, and several unauthorized use of a vehicle cases, according to prosecutors. He also had misdemeanor convictions for family violence assault, evading arrest and driving while his license was invalid.
In the trial, Wahl — who prosecutors noted had a Nazi SS tattoo on his wrist and a “White Pride” tattoo that extended the length of his arm — chose to represent himself.
Detectives began an investigation in April 2018 after Wahl went to his ex-girlfriend’s home in Weatherford, wanting money for gasoline. The couple had been dating since 2012, but they had broken up for nine months.
At her home, Wahl saw a pickup truck in the driveway, enraging him because he believed she was with another man. He punctured one of the tires. The pickup belong to her cousin.
The woman told jurors that just before the tire incident she had received hundreds of calls and texts from Wahl, who repeatedly threatened to kill her.
Here are some of the 72 emails that jurors had a chance to read:
▪ ”I’ll make sure that you turned out to be so (expletive) ugly.”
▪ ”I promise you I put a (expletive) stop to it even if that means going to prison for the rest of my (expletive) life.”
▪ “I promise you you’re going to pay in a thousand ways.”
▪ ”Your boyfriend will suffer greatly and then, I will kill myself so you will be responsible for two deaths.”
▪ ”I’m going on in vengeance now no mercy.”
“The volume, timing and content of the emails, as well as their graphic nature was terrifying for our victim,” said Parker County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant District Attorney Travis Warner. “He also repeatedly promised that he would follow through on his threats to kill or maim her, which, combined with his descriptions of watching her, were incredibly frightening.”
Detectives interviewed Wahl several times in April 2018.
“Even after officers left Mr. Wahl voicemail messages, he didn’t stop sending the victims emails,” Warner said. “Law enforcement intervention will often stop an offender’s run of criminal conduct. That was not the case for Mr. Wahl; he was relentless.”
Wahl was arrested in April 2018.
Wahl continued to send his ex-girlfriend letters from jail, even recruiting his cellmate’s wife to go track down the victim and try to get her to not come to court or to sign an affidavit of non-prosecution.
During the punishment phase on Wednesday, another Weatherford woman testified that she and Wahl met on the Parker County Buy/Sell/Trade page on Facebook and talked about swapping a vehicle and motorcycles. After several days, Wahl sent her several pictures of his genitalia and told her that he was masturbating while looking at her profile pictures on Facebook.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 2:16 PM.
