A Long Island truck driver was found guilty of killing his girlfriend inside the cab of his truck outside a Patchogue motel, officials said Wednesday.
Willie Hart, 61, of Yaphank, was convicted of second-degree murder in the May 2023 killing of 37-year-old Candace Woodruff of Texas, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The long-haul trucker called police in the early hours of May 29, 2023, saying he had found Woodruff unresponsive on the floor of his tractor cab parked outside the Shore Motor Inn in Patchogue.
Responding officers found the victim on the ground in front of the truck, not breathing, and noted scratches on Hart’s face that were “actively bleeding,” prosecutors said.
Emergency personnel also observed injuries to Woodruff’s body, including abrasions to her face and neck, soft-tissue hemorrhaging, head and neck contusions, and minor bruises and abrasions on her extremities.
Woodruff was taken to Long Island Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Medical examiners later determined she died of asphyxia by neck compression.
Security camera footage showed a struggle took place inside the truck cab, prosecutors said.
The video shows Woodruff leaving her motel room and entering the truck just before 1:30 a.m., followed by Hart, who left the room about nine minutes later before entering the cab.
The two were inside the truck for about 35 minutes.
After exiting, Hart was seen “casually” walking back to the motel room, grabbing a bag and placing it in a car before returning to the truck “in a disheveled state,” officials said.
Investigators also noted he was no longer wearing a necklace he previously had on. That necklace was later recovered from the floor of the cab, prosecutors said.
Hart pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in October 2023 and was ordered held without bail. On Wednesday, a Suffolk County jury found him guilty of murder.
“The defendant behaved cowardly and callously when he took his girlfriend’s life,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said when announcing the verdict. “I am relieved that the jury has held him responsible for his actions. I urge anyone who is in a relationship involving violence to call 911 or Suffolk County’s S.T.O.P. Violence Against Women Program at (631) 853-8222.”
Hart is expected to be sentenced Dec. 3, officials said. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
