Derek Sales was sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas for the murder of a disabled man. According to court documents Derek Sales was serving a seventy five year prison sentence for rape and kidnapping when he escaped from a Warren jail. On the run Derek Sales would break into the home of the victim, Willie York, who was confined to a wheelchair. The victim would be murdered in his home. Derek Sales would be arrested in the victim’s home the day after the murder. Derek Sales would be convicted and sentenced to death.
Arkansas Death Row Inmate List
Derek Sales 2021 Information
ADC Number 000968
Name: Sales, Derek
Race BLACK Sex MALE Hair Color SALT & PEPPER Eye Color BROWN
Height 71 inches Weight230 lbs.
Birth Date 01/08/1961
Initial Receipt Date 01/29/1986
Facility Varner Supermax
Derek Sales More News
A Warren man convicted in the April 2005 killing of a man in a wheelchair has been sentenced to death.
Bradley County Circuit Court Judge Bynum Gibson on Thursday sentenced Gibson Derek Sales, 46, to death, following a jury’s recommendations. A jury deliberated about two hours before returning with the death sentence, said Prosecutor Thomas Deen.
The jury convicted Sales of stabbing and strangling Willie York, 56. Sales also received a life sentence on an aggravated robbery charge.
Police said they found Sales in York’s home the day after the April 16, 2005, killing.
Sales was already serving 75 years in prison before a Christmas Eve 2005 escape from a Warren jail. He and another prisoner overpowered guards with pepper-spray and a sock loaded with bars of soap. Police captured Sales shortly after his escape.
Deen said Sales had previously been in prison for other convictions, including rape and kidnapping
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2007/may/19/warren-man-convicted-murder-sentenced-death/
Derek Sales Other News
Willie York, whom Sales knew and visited, was found murdered in his home on April 16, 2005. York, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, had very limited use of his hands and could not walk. For this reason, York was mostly confined to a recliner and a bed that was kept in the living room of his home. It was adduced at trial that Sales was aware that York, who sold beer by the can out of his home, used a cigar box as a cash register and as storage for some personal papers. Sales was also aware of the fact that York kept this cigar box near him at all times.
On the day of the murder, Sales was at the York home several times and purchased several beers from York. When York’s family left his home at approximately 6:30 that evening, Sales was there, and he was still there later in the evening when York’s granddaughters brought him dinner and when York’s daughter stopped by for a short visit. Later that night, two of York’s granddaughters went to the home to help York get into bed. When they arrived at the house, they could not see York sitting in his recliner and then noticed a shadowy figure, whom they recognized as Sales, moving about the house. Concerned, they called 911. One of the officers at the scene confronted Sales on the front porch of the home, and after Sales tried to flee, he was taken into custody. York was then found inside the home lying in a pool of blood on the floor. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the medical examiner later determined that there were three possible causes of his death: strangulation, blunt-force trauma to the abdomen, head, and chest, and a stab wound of the neck. Sales was subsequently charged with residential burglary, aggravated robbery, and capital murder, although the residential burglary charge was later nol-prossed.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ar-supreme-court/1679451.html
