Snapped: Women Who Murder - Angela Wilty

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

After a family man is gunned down, a domestic dispute leads investigators to an unlikely culprit.Season 33 Episode 11Originally aired: Jan 14, 2024Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on t...he Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:01 A hardworking family man is gunned down in his quiet Mississippi neighborhood. There's a dead man laying it into my driveway. Looks like he's been shocked. His wallet was still there. Nothing was taken. This wasn't something just out of the blue. It was very clear. It was the deliberate design to affect the death of this person.
Starting point is 00:00:24 Whoever wanted this man dead chased him to his death. A wife's secret life offers a lot of. long list of suspects. There's multiple men that she has long conversations with on the phone. He said, you need to look into him because he's committed a murder before. The investigation reveals a troubling familial relationship. There's so many rumors. There's so many allegations.
Starting point is 00:00:54 She told him a whole lot of things that she probably shouldn't have told him. With shocking me, I'm afraid of you. You're what you do with that bitch, you know. With shocking revelations leading to a deceitful mastermind. She is a manipulator. She is only out for herself. She was losing everything, and she didn't know how to handle it. I asked her what she involved in, she said yes.
Starting point is 00:01:22 Just south of the Tennessee border lies the tranquil town of Olive Branch, Mississippi. Branch, Mississippi. Olive Branch is not too far away from Memphis. And you go into this area where it's about family, raising your kids in a really great neighborhood, and feeling safe. But just before dawn on March 23, 2018, a 911 call from a quiet neighborhood sends police to the scene of a disturbing crime. Oh, it brings 9-1-1. What's going on there, sir? There's a dead man laying it into my driveway.
Starting point is 00:02:19 Do you recognize me maybe from your apron? No, do not. Looks like you've been shocked. When first responders arrive on scene, they have to secure the area. They see the deceased mail on the side of the road in a large pool of blood. Officers confirm the man is deceased and secure the crime scene for homicide. scene for homicide detectives. As I arrive, I walk over to the area where the body was,
Starting point is 00:02:58 a male-aged man laying in the street, deceased, and he appeared to have two gunshot wounds to the chest. His feet were touching where the sidewalk was, and his arms were down at his side. They first looked to see if there was anything on his person, and they were able to find his wallet in his pocket. He was identified as John Paul Wilty,
Starting point is 00:03:22 and it had the address on his driver's license that went to the house two doors down. It appeared to us that whoever wanted this man dead chased him to his death. He did everything he could do to keep from someone killing him. How did this happen? Who did this to him? At this point, the investigation,
Starting point is 00:03:48 Law enforcement do know that it's a very personal murder. John Paul Wilty was born August 14th, 1967 on the Gulf Coast of Texas. He grew up in a loving family, but his childhood was marred by trying times. My father's father passed away when my dad was much younger, between seven and eight.
Starting point is 00:04:19 He committed suicide. He was a very depressed man. man. John Paul was hurt by that. I know it devastated him. His mother told me that John Paul felt like he had to step up. She said it was like he changed overnight from a little boy to a man. Despite shouldering responsibility at such an early age, John did his best to maintain a positive attitude. If he could bring joy and humor and be funny and uplift somebody like that, he would do it. In high school, that desire to make people laugh turned John into a class clown. It also earned him the affections of a fellow classmate. When John Paul was in high school, he met Paula. It were young.
Starting point is 00:05:19 and she got pregnant and they got married. When John learned he was going to be the father of twin boys, he dropped out of school and went to work. My father was a pipe fitter. He worked for a company that would contract out and do different jobs, made good money. John Paul, as a father, was hands-on. His kids were everything.
Starting point is 00:05:47 He wanted nothing but his kids to have the world. But as devoted as John was to being a father, the same couldn't be said for his marriage. I met him and I started hanging out down the street with his wife and we kind of became friends. I started noticing issues in the marriage between Paula and John Paul. John Paul was staying at my house a lot. I had got pregnant with Ashley and I had... told him he had a choice. You leave Paula and be with me, or I raise this baby alone.
Starting point is 00:06:31 And John Paul was like, well, I'm here. It was a little while before John Paul and Paula divorced. The couple shared custody of John's three-year-old twins, and one year later had a second daughter together. Unfortunately, that partnership wouldn't last either. He weren't coming home a lot. So I was at the house with my two girls and with his twins. And I finally had enough of that and said, okay, now it's time to be over.
Starting point is 00:07:05 My parents love each other very much, but they were better as friends than a couple. After my mother, he met Mary. She was older and they ended up having one child together, my baby brother, John Paul Jr. I had never got the full story of why John Paul and Mary split up. I never heard the reason for that. In 2001, at the age of 34, John had five children and three failed relationships. But he was convinced he would eventually find the right woman. Spring in 2001, John is working on his truck.
Starting point is 00:07:54 It hurts himself. He has a really bad gash on his hand. on his hand. While he's in pain, he looks across and he sees this woman, and her name was Angela. She lived in the trailer park he did, and she was a lot younger than him. I think he fell in love with her right off the bat. Like John, Angela Hinnard had a troubled childhood. Her father left when she was young, but thankfully another man stepped into the role. Angela's mother married CSO Norville. He pretty much raised Angela and her sisters.
Starting point is 00:08:39 Mr. Norvelle's relationship with Angela Wilty was very deep. He took the father role through most of her life, most of her growing up. C.S.O. Norvel was one of the only constants in Angela's life. By the age of 20, she'd already been through two failed relationships. Angela married Michael Casey at 15 to leave home. She had Bradley at 16. Two years after Bradley was born, she had another son with another man.
Starting point is 00:09:18 When Angela met John Wilty, she was a single mother raising two boys. When she met my father, it was stability for her. She had somebody that cared. I believe my father enjoyed the fact that Angela was a very family-oriented person. She loved to be around her kids and enjoy her family as much as she could.
Starting point is 00:09:42 Despite their 15-year age difference, John and Angela quickly bonded over their love of family. Their whirlwind romance led to the birth of a daughter in 2002. The following year, they got married. It was very chaotic at the house. So many kids. He had six biological kids and Angela had two sons. It was a lot on him to keep up and take care of all of them, all of us. Angela's working as a contractor, rebuilding and redesigning homes.
Starting point is 00:10:24 John was a maintenance mechanic at a chemical plant. He would work around the clock if that's what they needed. He was dedicated. He definitely made all the money he could for his family. As a blended family, John and Angela worked hard for the next 15 years, and eventually were able to settle in the upscale neighborhood of Alexander's Ridge. But all hopes of growing old together are shattered when John is found shot to death in the street near their home. We're looking at the totality of the whole scene,
Starting point is 00:11:01 And you've got Mr. Wilty who was in his driveway getting ready to go to work. His keys are at the end of the driveway. His wallet was on his person and the fact that nothing was stolen. This was not random. It was very clear from the beginning that this had to have been a very planned murder. It was the deliberate design to affect the death of this person. John Wilty. Grusome details come to light.
Starting point is 00:11:32 As I'm looking at his hands, it appears. It appears to me that he crawled. The skin was coming off of his knuckles. And an emotionless widow leads to a startling discovery. We're taking a step back now going, oh my God, they had a very rocky relationship. Detectives in Olive Branch, Mississippi are investigating the murder of 50-year-old John Paul Wilty,
Starting point is 00:12:04 found shot to death in his own neighborhood. As the coroner gets there, we pull Mr. Wilty's shirt. up, we find that he has a gunshot wound on the left and right side of his chest. And as I'm looking at his hands, it appears to me that he crawled to where he ultimately died. The skin was coming off of his knuckles. After we marked all of our evidence, and I walked the crime scene, I'm checking for any indication of how Mr. Wilty would have ended up houses down from his house.
Starting point is 00:12:41 residents and daylight comes as I'm walking back tracking and looking at things I can see a blood trail that leads from his driveway where it looked like he had tried to flee the scene police find John's truck parked outside his house with the door open officers located a black towel laying right below the truck they also located a casing that they had to extract from inside the driver door. As we are collecting the towel that we find on the ground next to Mr. Wilty's truck, we realize it's got six bullet holes in it.
Starting point is 00:13:30 Investigators theorized that the shooter ambushed John as he was leaving for work between 4 and 4.30 a.m. using the towel as a makeshift silencer. John Wilty was shot beside his truck. and after being shot crawled some ways down the sidewalk through a yard appeared to have possibly been followed by whoever the shooter was and another shot was discharged. Near Mr. Wilty's body we found a live 40 caliber round and a spent shell casing 40 caliber round. To me that sounds like a gun stovepiked and it had to be racked to put a a live round back in it.
Starting point is 00:14:21 Major driver assumed the gun had jammed, and that's why we found a live round. So now it's time to go and talk to the family. I asked where the wife was. The first responding officers were like, well, we haven't made contact with the house yet, so at that point, that morning, we made contact. They had to knock several times,
Starting point is 00:14:48 and Angela Wilty came to the door. They tell her, that her husband has been shot and she didn't seem very surprised, didn't seem emotional at all. I explained to her what was going on and that we needed to talk to her at the station. While officers transport Angela to the station, others canvass the area hoping to find other sources of information. We looked for cameras, doorbell ringers.
Starting point is 00:15:23 anything that we could find that would help us in what happened. We found one camera across the street, and we were like, oh, wow, we got it. But their excitement is short-lived. We get the lady to the door, and she said, I'm sorry, my son put it there, it's a dummy camera. It just crushed us at that point, because we're back down to ground zero.
Starting point is 00:15:55 At the station, just after 9 a.m., Angela tells police, she has no idea what happened. She and John spent a quiet night at home, then went to bed. I asked Ms. Wilty, where was she at at the time he got up and went to work? She said that she was in the bedroom, asleep, and didn't hear anything. I was asleep. He leaves early, this crap. He never heard a gun. He never heard her husband's scream. This was regular routine. She would be deep into sleep while he got ready to go to work. And it all happened every day at the same time. I asked Ms. Wilty, if Mr. Wilty had any enemies, did he have problems at work?
Starting point is 00:16:48 Did someone not like him? Did they do drugs? Did they owe people money? And she couldn't think of anybody that would do anything to them that they were financially stable. And they didn't need anything. I asked her what Mr. Wilty did for living, and she said that he worked for a company called PMC up in Memphis and was a manager there. Anybody out there working so he's done, like, he's super nice. I can't see him having an altercation.
Starting point is 00:17:21 Anybody out there working. She had these good things to say about him, but at the same time, there was something off. She showed no emotion as a widow. And when we run across someone that's distant from that and not really engaged with it, and it's either they're in shock or they just don't want to talk about it or they don't care. And I couldn't read her at that point.
Starting point is 00:18:00 Before she leaves, police ask Angela if they can download her cell phone contents, including texts and emails. She willingly complies before being released. Law enforcement doesn't have a lot of leads to go with. So having Angela give up her cell phone was important in the investigation to understand more of this family dynamic. Will this lead to more individuals that we can question later?
Starting point is 00:18:33 Text messages from a particular individual immediately stand out. As we're going through Ms. Wilty's phone, we notice there's a phone number in there that she's constantly in contact with, and it's CSO Norville. This is her stepfather from years back. The messages with CSO are messages that don't speak of a happy marriage. There seems to be a lot of friction there. They fight over money. They fight over women that,
Starting point is 00:19:10 Mr. Wilty supposedly was saying she didn't tell us any of this in the interview. We're taking a step back now going, oh my God, they had a very rocky relationship. And now we've got to start checking into all these allegations. Sifting through hundreds of messages, investigators discover Angela did a lot more than just complain about her marriage. There's some infidelity. There's multiple men that that she has long conversations with on the phone and text messages.
Starting point is 00:19:49 One of those men is Angela's boss, Nissan. Text messages between him and Angela seem to be consistent, rather too consistent, for this to be an employee-employer relationship. This seemed to be a relationship that was maybe even more than friends. So now they're trying to find out what's really going on. Less than 24 hours into the murder investigation of John Wilty,
Starting point is 00:20:32 Angela Wilty's cell phone records have given Mississippi police potential leads, including someone who may be closer to Angela than she's letting on. Nisom was Angela's boss. She essentially worked for him on a daily basis, and it seemed through their conversations that they were. were more than just friends. Investigators know if John's wife was having an affair, it's possible her lover might have wanted
Starting point is 00:21:02 to get John out of the way. At this point, we know now we've got to get him to the station and talk to him. They called him and asked him to come to the All Branch Police Department to answer questions, and he did so freely involuntarily. He stated to law enforcement that him and Angela just friends that they confided in one another.
Starting point is 00:21:32 Nothing had physically happened between the both of them, but they had an emotional bond. The morning John was killed, Niesem says he was at home before going to work. When Angela didn't show up for work, he started to worry. He's like, I tried to call Angela multiple times, but I couldn't get her on the phone. So I drove to her house to get her to come to work.
Starting point is 00:22:02 That's when I saw all the police cars. So I just turned around and went back home. That to me is not a normal reaction to not getting someone on the phone. I asked, why didn't you just come down there and walk down to where the officers were and ask them what was going on? And he said, well, I couldn't get through. The officers had everything blocked off. Law enforcement follows up concerning where he was the morning of the murder, and they were able
Starting point is 00:22:32 to obtain video surveillance showing that he was, in fact, at his trailer when John was killed. Law enforcement clearly ruled him out from being the shooter, but we're still looking into motive and we're still looking into Angela. As investigators struggle to identify the other men in Angela's texts, a few days later they get another lead. On March 26th we got a phone call from someone who used to live in the neighborhood down the street from the Wiltees and and apparently was at some point in time good friends with them. John had a bragging moment where he would tell him about some of the affairs that he was having.
Starting point is 00:23:23 It's clear here that they're not putting their marriage first and we're gaining more insight into a potential motive. But the couple's former neighbor tells detectives he doesn't think a jealous lover killed John. He believes an overprotective family member is to blame. He said Angela did run her mouth a whole lot to her stepfather, Mr. Norville, and told him a whole lot of things that she probably shouldn't have told him. He said you need to look into the CSO because he's committed a murder before. We at that point start looking into a criminal background check on Mr. Norville. We were able to get a copy of that case file.
Starting point is 00:24:14 Back in 92, CSO had murdered a man who had a volatile relationship with his daughter. CSO drove to this man's house, armed with a handgun, knocked on the door, said, it's time to say goodbye, and shot him three times. He drove off, went home, and waited on the police to come pick him up. So he was ruthless. He was absolutely ruthless. He did it, he admitted he did it, and he was going to take responsibility for that. He then entered a guilty plea. CSO Norville was convicted of second-degree murder and felony possession of a weapon in 1992. He was sentenced to 61 years in prison, but he served just under 20 years before being released on probation
Starting point is 00:25:25 five years ago. We have the fact that these two individuals were killed at their home by handguns, and we learned that CSO had done this previous murder for a daughter. Is he willing to do it for another? Five days after John Wilty's death, detectives tracked down CSO to bring him in for questioning. We went to the house where Mr. Norville lives. We noticed there's line moors out there.
Starting point is 00:25:58 and trash piled up. And at that point, his parole officer gave him permission to come to the station and give us an interview. They asked if he would do anything for Angela. And he stated up to a limit. He said she was like a daughter. He held her as a baby. Law enforcement asked CSO his feelings about John.
Starting point is 00:26:20 And he said that he didn't like John because of the way he did Angela. We asked him, was he involved in the murder? Did he shoot John? Did he know who shot John? And Mr. Norval wouldn't nail down an answer for us. When CSO was asked for an alibi, he stated that he was at home asleep. And when law enforcement said, who can verify this?
Starting point is 00:26:47 He said, well, nobody. I have a roommate, but he sleeps pretty heavy. He's obviously a person of interest, maybe a potential suspect, but we don't have enough evidence at this point to charge him with anything. Coming up, detectives reach a dead end. At the six-month mark of investigating this case, I was at a breaking point. Until an unexpected tip breaks the case wide open. He not only knows who killed John, but he also knows where the evidence is.
Starting point is 00:27:26 Weeks have passed since John Wilty was shot, and investigators are no closer to finding his killer. But instinct tells them that the infidelity in his marriage was a key component. We have information from Angela's people as to how their marriage is. We need to find individuals who speak with John, who are John's friends, see if we can get any information from them. John's coworker Kyle is happy to tell them what he knows. When law enforcement speak to Kyle, they learned that Angela had had an affair and left John at some point,
Starting point is 00:28:18 and that John moved out and moved in with Kyle. Kyle said her and John had gotten into a big fight, and it ultimately ended up in the parking lot. And Angela had cut John's knee area opened with a box cutter. The Memphis Police Department showed up, and they ultimately took John to jail because he said, hey, it's my fault.
Starting point is 00:28:51 The kids are going to need her. Just take me to jail. He was on probation for that, and that was sometime in 2015. But according to Kyle, there are rumors that wasn't the first time their relationship got volatile. Michael Casey used to be.
Starting point is 00:29:13 married to Angela Wilty. He said that Angela solicited Michael years ago to kill Mr. Wilty. So now we got to check into Michael Casey and see if this actually happened. And Michael Casey came in voluntarily. Michael Casey told law enforcement that she approached him approximately 2014, 2015, and said that she wanted him to kill John. How much was she, did she give a price or anything on how much she wanted to go a thousand dollars? She wanted me to get a gun and everything. I don't find out. Basically, it came out to do it.
Starting point is 00:30:00 Michael says he turned Angela down, but that didn't stop her from trying a different way. But I do know she did try to have. How did that come about? She told me in her mouth. He said she had crushed up some pills at one point in time. and John got sick but didn't die, and nobody was sent to the hospital. Just a totality of evidence points to Angela
Starting point is 00:30:33 wanting John dead. Detectives surmise that Angela then turned to the one person she knew she could count on. Her stepfather, CSO Norville. Angela has a motive, and CSO may have, but that doesn't really doesn't reach beyond a reasonable doubt to prosecute somebody. Until we can link these individuals to a murder weapon,
Starting point is 00:31:05 we don't have enough pieces of the puzzle. The case remains unsolved for seven months. Then, in October 2018, a domestic incident breathes new life into the case. Law enforcement gets called to all a branch for a domestic. disturbance between Angela Wilty and Bradley Casey, their son. The officers arrived on scene, spoke with Angela,
Starting point is 00:31:41 and spoke with Bradley Casey, who had been in a verbal altercation over Angela taking Bradley's vehicle away from him. He's on scene telling officers things about this homicide. In his anger over, over, a car. He begins to spill the beans stating that he not only knows who killed John, but he also knows where the evidence is. When detectives interview 20-year-old Bradley, he is clearly emotional. I feel like to come up here to tell you all everything because it's been bothering me to someone
Starting point is 00:32:29 to me to death. He confesses that three weeks ago, Angela told him the truth about John's murder. She told me everything, everything was like. She told me to kill John. He is Buh Norville. I asked her, was she involved, and she said yes. She asked me to hide the gun. I knew where it was, should call you.
Starting point is 00:33:07 His mother wanted him to go to CSO Norville's house. and get the gun and throw it in the pond at the back of CSO's house. He told law enforcement that Angela told him specifically where it would be, specifically in a cat litter bucket on CSO's property. He goes to CSO's house. He looks in the backyard, and he sees this gun there,
Starting point is 00:33:35 and at this point, he's like, I can't believe my mom had anything to do with this. And he breaks down, and he tells her I can't. And that's when they get into the argument. After the interview, detectives request a search warrant to return to CSO Norvel's property. It's not a quick process. We get up there a couple of days after the interview with Bradley.
Starting point is 00:34:20 To our astonishment, we find out that The whole backyard's been cleaned up. All of the trash that was there before, it's all gone. Everything's cleaned up back there. We're just about getting ready to leave when one of the detectives said, let's look under the house. When they open up the crawl space,
Starting point is 00:34:48 they look in to the left and see this yellow tidy cat's bucket with a red top, which is exactly what Bradley said it would be. So they pull this bucket out, and we find a handgun, a nylon holster, and some ammunition. It was a 40-caliber weapon, which is the exact style of casings that they located at the crime scene. Just visible on the gun, you could see what appeared to be blood spots. So law enforcement immediately bagged it for evidence and sent it to the FBI for DNA analysis. Ballistics show that the shell casings that we picked up from the crime scene matched this firearm.
Starting point is 00:35:44 The blood that was on the firearm was John Wilty Sr.'s blood. So now we have our match. When investigators trace the owner of the weapon, they discover it was purchased by Angela Wilty. At this point in time, law enforcement is ecstatic because we can finally put the firearm in Angela Willey's hands. I instantly felt relief. I knew that all the hours that we spent on this case
Starting point is 00:36:23 and sleepless nights and worrying is coming to an end. We've got a 40-caliber handgun. Now we can make an arrest. On March 4th, 2019, nearly a year after John Wilty was shot, his wife, Angela, is charged with plotting his murder. We go to Miss Wilty's house and pick her up. We arrested her and brought her to the station
Starting point is 00:36:54 and she refused to talk to us. CSO Norbel was also charged with conspiracy, commit murder with Angela Wilty and first-degree murder of John Wilty. I would think that a jury would see right through her, especially her being there, but that's all we can prefer right now. Almost a year after the murder of John Wilty, Angela Wilty and CSO Norville are behind bars while awaiting trial.
Starting point is 00:37:33 Prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to prove how they did it. The question remaining is why. to their HR department where Mr. Wilty had worked. In 2015, Mr. Wilty had his children and his wife, Miss Wilty, as beneficiaries equal part on a $750,000 life insurance policy. And in 2015, all those beneficiaries changed. We learned that online, his primary benefits
Starting point is 00:38:18 an official had been changed from all of his children to just Angela. And two days after the murder, Angela filed a claim on the life insurance. We can't say who did it. But our theory in all of this is she killed her husband for the $750,000 life insurance policy. Those close to the family believe Angela had other reasons as well. She is a manipulator. She is only out for herself.
Starting point is 00:38:55 I was informed by my dad's friends that he was planning on leaving. He was going to wait until my little sister was of age, but he couldn't take it anymore. I believe Angela killed John because she was losing control of the situation. He was done. But investigators believe Angela was smart enough
Starting point is 00:39:21 to get someone else to do the dirty work for her. C.S.O. Norbel, he to us, appeared to be very protective of Angela and what was going on between her and John. I think she was pushing his buttons, knowing that he had a prior murder conviction, knowing that he would be capable of doing something, in that manner. Anticipating a fierce legal battle, Angela assembles an expensive defense team. But prosecutors have something different in mind.
Starting point is 00:40:12 Because this is a circumstantial evidence case, the best case scenario for us is to have one of the two flip on each other. Early on it was clear that CSO was never going to turn on Angela for any reason. But Angela, based on all of the two, all of the facts of her case, it was in her best interest to cooperate with the state to get leniency. Angela immediately accepts the state's plea deal.
Starting point is 00:40:46 She secures a reduced charge that would give her 20 years with a possibility of growth as she would go and she would testify against her stepfather. In May 2022, CSO Norvel stands trial for conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder. But Angela isn't quite the star witness prosecutors were hoping for. Angela never admitted to helping CSO commit the murder.
Starting point is 00:41:24 There were several times where she just wasn't honest and wasn't forthcoming to the jury. The only evidence tying CSO. to the murder of John Wilty was the firearm being found on his property in addition to the testimony of Angela Wilty. In the end, it's not enough to convince the jury. He was acquitted. He would serve time simply for having a gun. He's just not going to serve any time for using it. For John Wilty's loved ones, the outcome is disappointing.
Starting point is 00:42:12 We try our best to move on. I don't believe we're really going to. I catch myself talking to him all the time. So I think I just got to keep moving. He would be mad at me if he knew that I was so upset and not living life to its fullest. It was devastating. He was a good friend. He was a good father. I mean, just nobody can say anything bad about John. He's just one of the best persons you could ever meet.
Starting point is 00:43:00 CSO Norville was subsequently jailed for parole violations. Angela Wilty is eligible for parole in September 238. She will be 56 years old.

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