Maximum sentence sought for murderer

Kim Smith

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.

Prosecutors could only convict Glenford Ennis of second-degree murder for killing his girlfriend, but they expect Dwight Whylie to spend a long time in prison for the act.

Preparing for Ennis' sentencing next week, prosecutors believe Ennis is really Dwight Whylie, a felon convicted of drug and vehicle theft charges who was deported back to Jamaica in 1992.

They believe he stabbed Michelle Welch, 27, to death on March 30, 2001, because she wouldn't marry him and he feared his true identity would be discovered and he would be deported.

Although he can't re-try Ennis in an attempt to get a first-degree murder conviction, Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney L.J. O'Neale filed a memorandum Thursday asking District Judge Nancy Saitta to give Ennis the maximum sentence on each count, and run them consecutively instead of at the same time.

O'Neale wrote that while the 33-year-old Ennis conveyed to the jury he killed Welch while gripped by an "overpowering passion," he is actually a "cold, uncaring and calculating" man.

The discovery of Ennis' real identity "brings some aspects of this case into gruesome clarity:" O'Neale wrote. "The defendant's insistence, to the point of obsession, that Michelle Welch marry him can now be understood as not being about her ... but all about him."

O'Neale wrote that "in the terrible light of this reality, the defendant stands before this court as a person who deserves every second of incarceration that can lawfully be imposed."

Ennis, who was also convicted of coercion and attempted murder for an earlier incident involving Welch, will be sentenced on Wednesday.

Ennis' attorney, Deputy Public Defender Drew Christensen said, "I'm just shocked, but hopefully this will not affect his sentencing. Hopefully, he'll just be sentenced on what he was convicted of."

According to the memorandum, "Dwight Whylie" was deported from the U.S. in December 1992 after being convicted on a crack cocaine charge. He was also convicted under that name on a purse-snatching robbery charge and a stolen vehicle charge.

Whylie allegedly re-entered the country as Glenford Ennis in January 1997 as the spouse of a Kimberly Ennis.

Kimberly Ennis withdrew her petition to sponsor him as a permanent resident when he deserted her a year later and she learned his real name, the memorandum states, and they later divorced.