A former prison inmate still on probation in Georgia was charged Friday with second-degree murder after Seattle police say he bludgeoned his girlfriend to death on Christmas Eve.
Prudence Hockley, 55, was found unconscious by her 13-year-old daughter in the family's driveway following a heated discussion with Johnnie Lee Wiggins, a competitive bodybuilder and former Cobb County resident. The daughter told police she heard a loud thump against the house and, according to a certificate of probable cause filed Friday in Seattle, the diminutive high school teacher sustained "significant head and facial injuries" and was bleeding profusely from the back of her head.
"What did you do to my mom?" the 13-year-old asked Wiggins as he walked toward his car. According to police documents, Wiggins calmly told the girl, "It was [Hockley's friend]," then drove off.
Wiggins, 48, was in Washington illegally, violating terms of his recently reworked probation for a first-degree assault conviction for which he served five years at the Coffee Correctional Facility in southeast Georgia, a state Department of Corrections official told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday.
He had been previously allowed to relocate to Seattle after a national parole board granted his request to be placed under Washington's supervision following his 2008 release from prison. Wiggins had largely avoided trouble there, landing a job as a fitness instructor at a local gym, according to published reports.
But on May 16, Wiggins was arrested after allegedly attacking one of his parole officers. A search of his home yielded a "large quantity" of anabolic steroids, according to a case summary released late Friday by King County, Wash., prosecutors.
That prompted Washington prison officials to try and extradite Wiggins back to Georgia, which would be responsible for supervising the remainder of his probation sentence, said Washington Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis. Wiggins finally agreed in August to voluntarily report to a Cobb probation officer.
Despite the alleged assault and drug possession, Wiggins was classified as "an unsupervised probationer" once he returned, Gwendolyn Hogan, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, told the AJC. As such, Wiggins was required to notify his probation officer when he left the state or changed his address.
Wiggins failed to do so and will face charges in Georgia, Hogan said.
The probation issue is a delicate one in Washington, which pushed for tougher oversight after an Arkansas man serving his probation sentence outside of Tacoma killed four police officers in 2009.
Lewis said prison officials there assumed Wiggins' probation would be supervised. Washington does not have "unsupervised" probation, he said.
Georgia DOC officials would not say whether Wiggins had been in contact with his appointed officer since returning for his hearing in August.
It wasn't the first time he had violated terms of his probation in Georgia, said prosecutors in Washington, citing a 2002 incident.
Wiggins' rap sheet is extensive, with criminal charges filed against him in three states -- including assaults against women.
Hockley's 24-year-old daughter told police her mother confided that Wiggins was "controlling, jealous and short-tempered," once giving her a black eye. Hockley said her boyfriend suffered from "‘roid rage."
Wiggins is being held on $5 million bail and will be arraigned on Jan. 12. Typically a second-degree murder charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in Washington, but Wiggins could face a stiffer penalty since the alleged crime was committed in the presence of a minor, prosecutors said.
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