The Deck - Mason Worthington (Wild Card, Virginia)

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Our card this week is Mason Worthington, the Wild Card from Virginia.  In the early hours of December 30, 2018, deputies with the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office were called to the Penniman neighborhood of Williamsburg, initially for a report of shots fired. Then, they were called again: A 20-year-old had been fatally shot in his home. They spend the next several days talking to Mason’s friends, searching for surveillance footage, and collecting evidence.  Since then, investigators have canvassed the neighborhood, turning over every possible clue that might help piece together what happened on December 29, 2018. They believe they might be close to answers — as long as they’re able to track down the man who might know what happened.  Anyone with information can call the James City County Police Department at  757-890-3621or the Hampton Roads Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP (5625-887).    View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/mason-worthington Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media. Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuck Twitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuck Facebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllc To support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org. The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers.  Instagram: @ashleyflowers TikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkie Twitter: @Ash_Flowers Facebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our card this week is Mason Worthington, a wild card from Virginia. A 2018 shooting in Virginia has totally mystified investigators. They've managed to confirm so many details from that night, down to how many people were in the room where shots were fired, and who was sitting where? The problem is, one of the people who was in that room, who investigators believe may have answers, he's been on the move for the last seven years,

with one investigator trailing closely behind, just never able to catch him in time. But maybe our deck listeners can be one step ahead. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the deck. It was right before midnight, about to be December 30th in 2018, when the phone rang for a dispatcher near Williamsburg, Virginia. I just heard several gunshots in my car speeding off,

and I just wanted to report. that. Okay. It wasn't at our location, but we heard it very close. Did you see the vehicle? No, we didn't see anything. We were in the backyard, but we did. He definitely heard it, and it definitely sounded like gunshots.

It sounded like four gunshots. Unfortunately, dispatchers across the country get vague calls like this all the time. It could be serious, or it could turn out to be nothing, like fireworks. So Lieutenant Donald Mickett and some other patrol units didn't know what they were in for when they were dispatched to respond to Wilkins Drive in Williamsburg. So the first two patrol deputies respond to the area. They drive down the street. It's kind of a little bit longer street,

but it is more of an older neighborhood, older like the houses, the actual subdivisions, a little bit older. And patrol deputies responded out, were checking the neighborhood, things. They ended up talking to a homeowner down the street who thought it was fireworks as well. They stayed in the neighborhood for a few more minutes until essentially about 10 minutes after midnight, making it the 30th. And then that's when we went from there where another 911 call came in.

911, let's the address of your emergency. Ma'am, I'm over on, I think it's Wilkins. I think it's Wilkins Drive. I'm over off of 143. That's Tyler Johns, who lived on Wilkins Drive. By the solo gas station, I just went to my buddy's house to, get my dog because he was watching it for me and he's dead in his hallway. Like, I think he got shot or something.

He is dead in his hallway. Are you there with him now? I have walked right back out of the house. I don't know what to do. I don't. I don't know. Hold on. Let me see if I can find the mailbox.

It's 10, 1095. Get over here. Get over here. It's 1095, uh, Will Kenger. I'm not sure. He was not sure. Sure. Sir.

Sir. I just flagged a cop down. A cop just drove past my house. Is it a York County cop? Yes, sir, please help. Please help. All right, I think he's stopping. Is he coming to you?

Yes, ma'am. All right, honey. A second officer pulled up within a couple seconds of together. They were responding rapidly, obviously. They got to the front of the house, and he said that the back door was wide open. That's what Tyler told them. So they actually went around the back of the house. It's a smaller residence and went into the back of the house and came in to find the deceased.

inside the residence. They actually tried to look for any signs of life when they got there, and it was actually verified by a York County firefighter that responded as well, that he was deceased when they made contact with him. His full name was William Mason-Wrthington, but he went just by Mason, all of his friends knew him by Mason. No one else was in the house. It was just Mason. Even the dog that Tyler had shown up to get was in the car parked outside, although the property started filling up as more first responders arrived at the scene. And that's when Lieutenant Micket got there. I've been doing this job a long time.

Unfortunately, he looks like a young man that lost his life way too early. He had been struck by gunfire several times. There's bullet shell casings everywhere. There's some damage to the door from bullet strikes. There are other spots when you're standing in the living room. You can see where the other bullet strikes have struck the couch and the walls and things of that. Despite the damage to the front door from bullet strikes, there didn't appear to be any signs of forced entry. which told them something significant.

It was not like a random act of, let me just pick this house, this appeared to be very much targeted towards Mason. All told, Lieutenant Mickett and his team gathered more than 50 items of evidence from the scene, things like shell casings, some drugs they found, three firearms, and a bunch of random items like beer bottles. But it was hard to tell what was from that night specifically after learning that Mason lived in that house with two other roommates. and the house was the kind of messy that you would expect for most 20-something guys.

Anything they thought they had a good chance of getting DNA off of was sent to the lab. But as Lieutenant Mickett pointed out, that is often a bit of a long game. DNA takes a very long time at the lab. It's not like in the movies where we can say, oh, in the next 48 hours, I'm going to know exactly who touched this or anything like that. DNA is 8 to 10 months out. So if I send them something, it's going to be 8 to 10 months before they say, oh, there's multiple contributors, and you thought that was great, but you're not going to get what you thought out of it.

That's why Lieutenant Mickett didn't want to just sit back and wait for DNA to swoop in and save the day. He got right to work pounding the pavement. And spoiler alert, good thing he did, because when results did finally come back, they didn't get anything substantial to give them any leads. So for the first 12 hours, we had people inside the residence, several hours of collecting. items, pulling bullets out of walls, checking trajectory to find out about where the, basically the path of the bullet, the shell casing's inside, the shell casing's outside. And then we had other units and patrol units that were canvassing the neighborhood. This is before the time of everybody having a ring doorbell camera or anything. So we wanted to see if anybody had heard

anything, seen anything, had any possible video footage of a car down the street or anything that be helpful of that. There was a third investigative path happening in parallel, too. They needed to talk to the people closest to Mason, starting with his roommate Tyler Johns, who called 911. And investigators also identified a friend, Omar Gonzalez, who was known to hang out there at the house all the time. Investigators separated Omar and Tyler in separate patrol cars, trying to piece together what they

knew. They were both very, very upset about it. They had known Mason for a very long time. Omar was extremely hysterical, essentially, talking, and then he'd get really upset, start to cry, very, very upset about it. I think Tyler was more in shock. He would kind of give you a sentence and then just be quiet for a minute. Tyler told a pretty straightforward story.

He had gone out with a woman but was on his way home when he got a call from Omar saying that there had been a shooting. He rushed back to the house, and when he got there, he saw Omar out front waving him down. And that's when he immediately called 911 and flagged. down officers. Normally, a suspect necessarily wouldn't be flagging down, standing there yelling for police in the middle of the road. Which is why Tyler's story seemed genuine, and they dismissed him as a potential suspect early on. Omar, on the other hand, they had some questions about.

From the night of Mason's death, Omar's account left investigators with a lot of questions, and those questions have never quite gone away. Sheriff's deputies interviewed him at Mason's home and then again another four or five times, according to Lieutenant Mickett. And over the course of all of these conversations, Omar's story would change slightly. It seems some that Omar was leaving some space gaps in his story

that was a little, that made us question it. That's why when we talk about the number of times that Omar's been interviewed about it, some of his story seemed to be a little funny, didn't quite add up to some things. So doing interviews, if you ask someone to tell them about their day or where they started until they got to this point, if someone's being 100% truthful with you, they can give you every nook and cranny that they did in the last 10 hours, 12 hours, 15 hours, whatever. It seems if people leave big time gaps out, that there's things that they don't want the cops to know. So it did seem like there was a lot of things either left out, either omitted, or which can also be from shock of something traumatic happening.

But it can also be where people are purposely leaving things out because they don't want the police to know. Omar was clear about a few things. He was at the house in the hours leading up to the shooting. In fact, he said he and Mason had been hanging out all day and had even gone on a little road trip. He had actually gone on a trip to D.C. earlier that day with Omar. That they basically, I mean, they were taking pictures around D.C. and things like that. And then they came back to Williamsburg that evening. Investigators didn't need to take Omar's word.

There were actually photos of him and Mason hanging out at the monuments. Omar said when the two guys got back, it was just them hanging out at the house because Tyler was out on a date and the third roommate, Zane, was out of town. Omar says that they were there hanging out, watching TV, playing video games, and they invited a gentleman over. That gentleman for this purpose were going to use his name as Victor. And they had invited Victor over to the residents. Now, Omar wouldn't come out and say this directly, but investigators have pieced together that there was some sort of drug deal going on here. Our reporter Kate Michigan asked about this.

Are you able to tell me if Mason was selling drugs? It appears that he was selling narcotics, yes. Do you know if Omar was selling narcotics? I know he was often there when narcotics were sold if he was the actual seller of, I don't know. Omar said that within minutes of sitting down, two people came to the door. They had masks covering their face, and Omar had left the door unlocked. They pushed their way into the front door, and that's when the gunfire began. In some versions of Omar's story, he had locked the door after letting Victor in.

In other versions, Victor had forgotten and left the door unlocked. Omar tried to tell them what he could about the two masked shooters, but all he knew was that they were roughly as tall as the door frame. But that's as descriptive as he got. Lieutenant Mickett says that they know so little he's even hesitant to call them men because the reality is we just don't know. Even with the vague description and the inconsistencies, Omar was cooperating with law enforcement,

and that ultimately ruled him out as a suspect, which left Victor. The fact that he showed up right before the masked assailants, that seemed significant. But it turns out, Victor was kind of a hard dude to find. Lieutenant Micket wondered, though, if maybe, just maybe he could run in. to Victor at the vigil, Mason's friends and family held for him four days after he was killed. I actually attended it to try and see if there was anybody possibly a suspect or anybody that,

I guess more if someone showed up that people were like, why are they here or something like that, that would be a person to start looking at. So that was a bust. The vigil was filled with people who loved Mason, friends and family members who missed and remembered him. Honestly, a lot of people really liked him. He had a lot of friends in the neighborhood, a lot of friends in the area. People he went to high school with, a lot of people spoke very highly of him. Mason had gone to high school nearby and stayed local, even after his family moved out of state. He was kind of an average 20-year-old guy, liked cars. He loved dogs

so much that his family asked for donations to the local Humane Society after he died. And he'd been working as a mechanic at a dealership in Williamsburg, Virginia. As far as everyone knew, things seemed to be going okay. But somewhere down the line, Mason began selling drugs on the side. The sheriff's office doesn't know when Mason started dealing. I mean, he hadn't been on their radar for it. And based on what his family told police, it doesn't seem like that's something he shared with them either. They didn't want to be interviewed for this episode, so we couldn't ask them directly about that.

Or if they knew that he kept guns. But I imagine that's something that he didn't flaunt to too many people because in Virginia you aren't allowed to own or carry a gun unless you're 21. Mason was only 20. People who were around Mason daily though or in his house when deals were happening, they likely knew because we know from witness statements and case evidence that Mason had a gun on him when the two shooters came in. And in the barrage of gunfire, Mason was able to fire back one shot.

This was helpful information because it actually confirmed Omar's story of there being two shooters. You see, about this time, they had gotten the bullets from the crime scene analyzed, and they were informed that there were three different types at the scene. Now, knowing one of them was Mason's, that left two other types of bullets from two different 9mm guns, two shooters. The guns themselves, though, were nowhere to be found. But then, something happened. that almost never happens in cases like this.

Normally homicide guns don't come up. They don't normally like either people dismantle them or you actually do find the person responsible and then you search their house, search their storage lockers, or something and end up finding the gun, and that ends up coming back to be the correct one. Normally it's not that the guns are recovered miraculously within two weeks and then four weeks of the homicide,

but yet I don't have them in someone's, hand that I can essentially say, oh, you know what, they're probably the one that did it. I was amazed that it was recovered that quick. Two weeks after Mason was found dead in his home, police in nearby Newport News pulled a car over. When the driver got up so that police could search the vehicle, a gun came tumbling out. And when that gun was sent to the lab, lo and behold, it matched some of the shell casings found at Mason's murder scene. Then, roughly two weeks after that, the same thing happened again.

So the second firearm was recovered. Police were called to a timeshare up in Williamsburg, and they were trying to get a hold of the occupants, trying to figure out who was rented to things of that nature, and then they ended up executing a search warrant at the residence, or at the time share for the specific unit. and the firearm was recovered from that unit. But here's the thing about Virginia gun laws.

Sales only had to be logged once when the gun was sold for the very first time. After that, any private sales didn't need to be tracked. Now, this has changed since 2018. But at the time, that meant that investigators could only find the first buyer. And of course, when they did, they learned that these guns had been out of their possession for some time. So they tried to work backwards, as Mickett told our reporter Kate. So the person that was pulled over in Newport News said they got the gun from someone else. That someone else is known in the narcotics world in the area.

Essentially, if you're going to say, yes, they have a criminal record or whatever. Yes, they do have a criminal record. Yes, they are known by several local jurisdictions in the area to be around narcotics. And how do you know it's not the person who fired the weapon that to? I don't know that. They couldn't necessarily put this gun in that person's hands on the night of December 29, 2018. But that's what Lieutenant Mickett is trying to do now. Not with this person specifically, but he needs to put these guns in someone's hands that night.

He suspects that identifying one of those gunmen would be easier with the help of Victor. I would like him to tell me all about that night. What happened? What brought him there? What happened with the whole thing? And essentially how it went down. There's a lot of questions for Victor, yes. I could fill a book full of them. But he's never been able to go through that book of questions with Victor

because to this day, no one's ever been able to pin him down and interview him about Mason. Lieutenant Mickett has come. close, though. Victor didn't have a permanent address in 2019. Lieutenant Mickett figured out that he'd basically been couch surfing, staying with friends. But he was able to figure out where Victor was working at this business outside of Williamsburg. So Mickett spent a week surveilling the business, trying to track Victor's movements. He was able to ID him from a distance and saw him coming to

and leaving work. But then one day, Mickett just stopped seeing Victor's car in the parking lot. So he called the business and got a hold of HR. Apparently, they turned around and tipped Victor off.

And after that, Victor was gone for good, didn't even show up for his last paycheck. And then Victor fled town altogether. Mekit couldn't figure out what happened to the guy. Even trying to track his driver's license and other identifying information didn't work for years.

I mean, this dude was just a ghost. But it's hard to live like that, not using your real name or your social security number. Most people can't go forever. So every so often, Mickett would run it again and again. And one day, out of nowhere, there was his guy in Georgia.

Now, he couldn't go out of state just to talk to him, and he didn't have enough for an arrest, but he was back on the radar. So, Mickett's been watching and waiting. And guess who's back in Virginia? Mickett is actively trying to get in front of Victor, and he's looking for any other leads that our listeners can throw his way. I would say anybody that heard anything, saw anything that night,

whether it be a car, a vehicle description, a partial license plate, anything from that night, you never know if it was. something really small, but it could end up being that piece of the puzzle that fits this altogether, I would ask for them to call and let somebody know. Also, offenders are kind of hush-hush when this whole thing first happens, but we're several years from when this occurred back in 2018. So sometimes offenders get a little sloppy and start talking about, hey, or remember this, or start bringing up details of things. If anybody hears any of these details, or it can be a story amongst friends or anything, I would ask for someone to call in about that because you might think

it's very insignificant or something very minor or small, but it might be my piece that puts this altogether. They can call the non-emergency number for the sheriff's office, which is 757-890-3621. And they can say that they have information or a tip for the Mason-Wrthington homicide. It will likely be me that will be calling them back. Since 2018, Lieutenant Mick has stayed in touch with Mason's family, normally around the holidays when Mason was killed. He's hoping that the next call he makes to them could be a different one. This case, I would love to get solved.

I would love to say I put this person in jail and call Mason's mother and say, hey, guess what? I got your present. Here it is. The deck is an audio chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the deck and our advocacy work, visit the deckpodcast.com. I think Chuck would approve.