Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Summer House' Star West Wilson's Cousin Murdered Their Grandma: Police

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

The cousin of West Wilson, the star of Bravo's hit reality show "Summer House" is charged with murdering their grandmother. The Missouri State Patrol said Wilson's cousin, Dakota Sweeney, shot Gayle Wilson, 75, in the head on April 22 after a disagreement over "chores." Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the case and Sweeney's past in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Matt Mangino https://www.instagram.com/matthew.mangino/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

station until the officers go inside. Summer House star West Wilson's cousin is accused of murder, the victim, West's own grandmother. But what witnesses say started the violence will leave you stunned. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Annionette Levy. West Wilson was preparing to shoot the reunion for the new season of the Bravo hit reality show Summer House when an absolute tragedy rocked his family. It was just after 10 p.m. on April 22nd, a Wednesday night, when a call came into the 911 Center in Carroll County, Missouri. A short time passed, and then the dispatcher sent another communication to an officer.

24, be advised. What we're hearing is that a possible subject shot his mother-in-law. That's the only thing. The advice. The deputies found a confusing and likely chaotic scene, a grandmother of seven, named. named Gail Wilson. She was dead. Her step-grandson, West Wilson, one of the stars of Summerhouse, and the man who deputies would later say shot her, Dakota Sweeney, one of the seven cherished grandchildren listed in Gail Wilson's obituary. What a witness told investigators about what led up to this shooting that seemed to come out of nowhere will leave you gobsmacked, absolutely

stunned. In a probable cause affidavit, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper wrote, on April 22nd, 26 at approximately 2225 hours, Carroll County law enforcement officials were notified of a homicide on West 14th Street, Carrollton, Missouri. Carroll County Deputy Snyder arrived at the residence, and a few minutes later, he located victim number one deceased inside the residence. Also present at the residence was witness number one and Dakota A. Sweeney. After arriving on scene, Deputy Snyder was informed by witness number one. that Sweeney shot victim number one with a handgun while victim number one was seated on a couch inside the residence. According to witness number one, Sweeney had been seated on a separate couch

next to victim number one for approximately 30 minutes and without warning shot victim number one in the head. According to witness number one, earlier in the evening, Sweeney and victim number one had been in a disagreement about Sweeney not assisting with child. tours around the residence. Witness number one and victim number one were identified as the grandparents of Sweeney. At approximately 2229 hours, Deputy Snyder placed Sweeney into custody and located a holster on Sweeney's person. So a witness, likely Gail's husband, told detectives according to this trooper that Dakota Sweeney, a cousin of West Wilson, shot their step-grandmother after an argument over household chores. Dakota Sweeney was booked into the local jail on a first-degree

murder charge and a charge of armed criminal action. And get this, Dakota Sweeney has a background in law enforcement in 2024. He was named a Missouri Department of Conservation Agent for one of the counties in the state. The local news announced his appointment. He'd completed training with defensive tactics, firearms, and criminal investigations. Meanwhile, Gail Wilson's family remembered her for her kindness in her obituary. They said she ran her own stained glass business, worked as a manager at a local video store, and babysat for family. She quilted with church friends and even restored a Volkswagen Bugs engine on her own in high school. West Wilson hasn't commented publicly on the death of his grandmother. He's been in New York,

filming the new spin-off of Summerhouse in the city. So to break down this really disturbing case, I want to bring in Matt Mangino. He is a former prosecutor, also currently a criminal defense attorney. So Matt, thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate it. Thank you, Angina. Matt, when I first read about this case,

I don't know about you. But when I first read the affidavit in this case, I thought to myself, what? I mean, I'm looking at this grandma, who loves to sew. I mean, she sounds like your, you know, stereotypical, like, loving grandmother. She babysits everybody's kids. She had a stained glass business.

I mean, she loves to sew and she quilts with her friends. She goes to church. She babysits everybody's kids. And Dakota Sweeney, one of her grandchildren, is accused of shooting her over an argument about chores. I mean, what are your thoughts? Well, you're right, Angine. When you read the affidavit of probable cause, it's chilling.

You know, here's a guy, you know, with his grandmother, apparently sitting next to her or near her on the couch for 30 minutes. And then according to Grandpa, he pulls out a gun and shoots his grandmother in the head and kills her. They call 911. He's still sitting there. The police show up. They take him into custody. It's just chilling, you know, regardless if there was an argument or not, that, you know, someone is just going to pull out a gun and shoot somebody in the head that they've been sitting with for 30 minutes, let alone that being your grandmother. Right. And that's my thing, too. I'm thinking to myself, first of all, you know, grandpa, is sitting there. And if you look at their picture on the obituary and you look at the Facebook page, I mean, they just look like a happy couple growing older together.

You know, obviously they've had children. They have grandchildren together. They love one another. You know, couples just they grow old together. They're sitting there watching TV. And I can't imagine. I can't imagine this. this grandfather, the husband of Gail sitting there and witnessing this, and then being left,

probably just in stunned silence, shock, maybe fearing for his own life, like what on earth could have been going through this poor man's head? And in the, you know, his older years, his senior years, having witnessed his wife's murder. Right. I mean, I can't imagine that. It's tough to wrap your head around it. When you think that, you know, here's, here's a guy sitting with his wife and his grandson. And, and all of a sudden, you know, grandson pulls out a gun and shoots his wife in the head and kills her. I mean, I mean, that's beyond shock. I mean, you know, how do you react to that? Obviously, the reaction was to call 911. Obviously, she was dead immediately because they, I think it was reported as, you know, a homicide.

And the officers responded. And when they got there, you know, there's the victim dead. There's grandpa, the witness. And there's Dakota, the killer, waiting for the police to arrive. I want to put the mug shot up on the screen, Matt, because a picture is a picture. It's a snapshot in time. But it really does look like something's not, something is not right here. And I don't know if we're going to find out later that this guy is mentally ill.

I don't know if we're going to find out that drugs, he was using drugs. I don't know all of these things or any of these things. But the guy looks like a mess. And I say this because we also can contrast this with the photograph of him as a conservation agent. In 2024, the Missouri Department of Conversation announced, hey, here's one of our new agents for Mercer County. And he's clean cut and clean-shaven in his uniform. He was a law enforcement officer for the state of Missouri. So there are a lot of questions here.

Was this his service weapon or was this just a personal weapon? What was going on with this guy? So if you're a defense attorney, where do you start with this? Well, you know, there's a lot to sort of unwrap here. I mean, you know, what we know based on the news accounts is that apparently there was an argument or disagreement between Dakota the defendant and grandma. about doing chores. So I take from that that he's living there as an adult male with his grandparents if you're arguing about chores. So, you know, there's the first question, you know, why is this adult male living with grandma and grandpa? And, you know, why is he not doing his fair share

of the work around the house? So there's obviously some dynamic there that isn't what we normally think of a young male law enforcement officer. So those are not typical circumstances. And then, you know, I think the fact that they have this disagreement and then 30 minutes later he just pulls a gun and kills her certainly makes this a first degree murder case and not some sort of heat of passion sort of case where you get in an argument and you lose control and you do something that you regret i mean there's a cooling off period there's a period where he sits there silently next to his you know future victim and then just suddenly pulls out a gun and kills her kills the allegation is he's innocent until proven guilty i want to restate that grandma

grandma sewing sewing quilting with friends church going stained glass making grandma you don't get more sympathetic than that as a victim no and and and not you know not the circumstances don't lead to any sort of sympathy or understanding of what allegedly happened here i mean this is this is sort of so random. Here's grandma sitting here. Maybe she was a little upset earlier about the chores. But from the accounts that we know, he just pulls the gun out, sitting on the couch, and shoots her in the head. There's no plausible explanation for that type of conduct. One of the main reasons this is making the news is because Gail, the victim in this case,

is the grandmother of West Wilson, who is on this very popular show Summer House that airs on Bravo. It's really popular. It just was getting ready to start filming a new season. The night, the day after, the night that this happened, he was going to start filming the next day on this new season. And I don't know how, but somehow this didn't come out for more than a week. I mean, this news was kept pretty quiet for a week. And so he hasn't commented on this at all. We haven't seen any comments from him about, you know, mourning his grandmother or anything like that.

Do you have any thoughts on that? I mean, this is somebody who's on reality TV. reality TV is built all around perception, drama, image. What do you make of that, Matt, as an attorney? Well, this is a tragedy in so many different ways. You know, certainly the family of Gell is, I'm sure, devastated by this. And, you know, it's beyond, you know, our comprehension to fully understand how something like this so random. affects people. But the ripple effect is, you know, to West Wilson, his career, maybe. I mean,

you know, how does this impact his career? How does it impact the other people who were close to Gulf, friends, family? You know, so when something like this, when a tragedy like this happens, the ripple effect, you know, for family members and people close to the victim, you know, really has a significant impact on their life more so than just mourning the loss of a loved one. It can have an impact in so many different ways. Yeah, undoubtedly. So I'm going to be interested to see if he does end up commenting on this. I'm thinking possibly not if he hasn't already.

I mean, it has now hit the news, and he's somebody who is in the news. So I'm wondering if he will be commenting on it or if they're going to, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I know reality TV is supposed to be about reality, but we know so often it's kind of manufactured reality or, you know, they inject a little bit of drama in there. But if they're going to work this into the show, I mean, I know you're not a Hollywood guy, but you've been around a long time and been doing, you know, analyzing cases for a long time. Yeah, I mean, Angie,ette, nothing would surprise. me about what could end up on a reality television show. You know, and something like this, you know, certainly is compelling. I mean, people, you know, they're interested in how others react to tragedy and that sort of thing.

But obviously, there's the flip side to that. And that is, hey, you know, is this show trying to, you know, make money or gain ratings, you know, on the tragic death of a grandma? So it's sort of a double-edged sword. People are interested, but they're going to be interested in both ways. Hey, this is an interesting storyline, and, hey, this is over the top. You know, you kind of jump to shark here by bringing this terrible tragedy into this reality television show. Yeah, it's absolutely tragic, and it's just really, really horrible.

this poor woman, her husband, the whole family, it's just, it's unbelievable to me. It really is. And we'll see if we learn more about, I don't even know what you could tell me about the circumstances about any of this. It's just, it's horrific. And I don't know where his attorneys are going to go with this. I'll be interested to see what the prosecutors end up doing with this, whether or not they go for the death penalty in this. this case. I mean, it seems like maybe they could, but but I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know enough about the politics in Carroll County, how they would handle this and if it really qualifies under the statute, but it just seems absolutely horrific. Well, you're right. And, you know, prosecutors are going to have to look closely, you know, whether there are, you know, adequate aggravating circumstances, which they would have to prove in a death penalty case. You know, it's more than proving guilt of a first-degree murder. You go into a second phase of trial, the penalty phase, where you have to prove aggravating circumstances. And then, on the other

hand, the defense is going to be looking for, you know, potential defenses. You know, we don't know his state of mind. We don't know his mental health history. You know, at first blush, you know, something like this would seem to scream out for at least mental health evaluations and determinations, you know, whether he's, he's number one, competent. You know, number two, was he insane? Or, you know, does he have mental health problems that could be a mitigating factor in a death penalty case? So there's a lot of work to be done in this case on both sides, you know, from the prosecution standpoint and from the defense standpoint. point yeah undoubtedly and sometimes families don't want to go through all of that they would rather just i mean put this put it put it to rest and i mean it seems almost to depending on where

this case goes um right for a plea agreement as well right and you're right uh and janet because you know again this is the same family okay you know so typically we you know when we look at a homicide case. We're looking at, you know, the family of the defendant, and then we're looking at the family of the victim. Here, it's the same family. And that makes it so much more tragic and so much more difficult to deal with. No doubt. Well, we will keep an eye on it. Matt Mangino, thank you for your time and your expertise. As always, I appreciate it. Thank you, Angina. It's always nice to talk with you. And just so you know, after Matt and I spoke, I found out that Dakota Sweeney has not been a law enforcement agent with the Missouri Department of Conservation for more than a year. A spokesperson told me that Sweeney left that agency in early spring of 2025, although he told me he couldn't tell me why because of ongoing litigation. So we're going to dig into this a little more and find out what happened with Dakota Sweeney at that agency and why there's litigation. So stay tuned. Dakota Sweeney is being held right now in

a jail in Missouri. We'll stay on top of this case for you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Remember, you can always watch us on YouTube and you can also watch and listen to us on Spotify. So also check us out there. I'll see you back here next time.