Prosecutors: Ex-DeKalb deputy shot wife in heart

Derrick Yancy charged with killing wife and day laborer

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By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thirty years of marriage for two high school sweethearts ended with a DeKalb County sheriff’s deputy shooting his wife point-blank in the heart, prosecutors told jurors Monday.

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Derrick Yancey, a former DeKalb County deputy, disappeared while awaiting trial in the killing of his wife, Linday Yancey, and that of a day laborer.

DeKalb Sheriff's office Derrick Yancey, a former DeKalb County deputy, disappeared while awaiting trial in the killing of his wife, Linday Yancey, and that of a day laborer.

In this undated family photo, Linda Yancey is shown with son Cameron.

MARY LOU PICKEL, AJC Marcial Cax-Puluc had come from Guatemala to the United States. Friends said he had been in the country less than two months when he was killed.

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A shot first hit Linda Yancey in the chest. Another ran through her neck and out her ear, before her husband pressed the gun into the center of her chest as she lay on the floor, prosecutors said.

“That shot would blow away a portion of her heart,” Assistant District Attorney Ken Hutcherson said.

The trial started Monday for Derrick Yancey, who is charged with killing his wife and day laborer Marcial Cax-Puluc, 20, inside the Yanceys' Stone Mountain home in June 2008.

Derrick Yancey, 51, faces a minimum of two life sentences.

On Monday, prosecutors told jurors that Yancey “executed” his wife and Cax-Puluc, lied to police, cut off his ankle monitor and then fled to Belize.

Yancey’s attorney, Ruth McMullin, told jurors that her client killed the laborer in self-defense after he robbed Yancey’s wife.

McMullin told jurors Cax-Puluc attempted to rob Linda Yancey of $2,000 and then shot her. Derrick Yancey was forced to fire his service weapon after Cax-Puluc pointed a gun at him, McMullin said.

Police testified that Yancey wasn’t considered a suspect. Investigators testified that Yancey was never handcuffed or detained when police responded to his 911 call.

He told the dispatcher his wife had been shot and he needed instructions on how to do CPR.

This ultimately helped raise officers' suspicions. Investigator Greg Johns, of the county medical examiner’s office, said Linda Yancey had no bloody handprints on her shirt nor any indication she received chest compressions. Prosecutors said they also didn’t know why Yancey, a trained officer who had completed several first-aid courses, needed 911 to tell him how to perform CPR.

DeKalb Detective Richard Ward Thompson, who was the first to arrive at the scene, said Yancey told him the deaths were the result of a robbery and gunfight.

“He seemed relatively calm to me for someone just in a gunfight,” the officer testified.

Yancey led the officer to the basement where both bodies were found, along with numerous shell casings.

The officer testified that Yancey appeared calm but then later became extremely emotional. Firefighters said they had to remove him from the side of his wife’s body and carry him up the stairs.

Throughout the testimony, Yancey, dressed in a gray suit, turned his head as the investigators showed photographs of his wife’s body. He made no facial expressions at the photos or when his former colleagues at the sheriff’s department handcuffed him and led him back to jail. Yancey worked for the sheriff’s department for 18 years.

McMullin, the defense attorney, said her client was set up by police to alleviate pressure that officers were receiving during a grand jury investigation involving a high number of police-involved shootings. McMullin called the way her client was treated by police a "second tragedy."

McMullin said an officer told Yancey, “We are under a lot of pressure. Man, we got to do what we got to do.”

Prosecutors said officers treated Yancey fairly. “Derrick Yancey, like no one else, is not above the law,” Hutcherson told jurors.

McMullin acknowledged that Yancey fled, but did not say why.

“I can’t ignore the elephant in the room. Yes, Mr. Yancey cut his ankle bracelet off,” she told jurors. “Yes, he left. He did. But it did not happen in the days and weeks following the slaughter of his wife.”

The families declined to comment until the end of the trial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys declined, citing a gag order issued by Superior Court Judge Linda W. Hunter. The trial is expected to extend through Nov. 12.