JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A 75-year-old man serving a life sentence for killing another man more than four decades ago in southwest Missouri has died in prison.
The Missouri Department of Corrections said in a news release that Willard Woods died Thursday at the Jefferson City Correctional Center of apparent natural causes.
He was sentenced to life with no parole for 50 years for the 1979 killing of Allen House, whom he pulled a gun on after he saw him getting into a truck at a roadside pasture gate as he rode past on a motorcycle. Prosecutors say he then forced House to drive to a cemetery lane near the Newton County village of Stark City, where he stole his wallet and shot him.