On Sept. 25, 2015, moments before being sentenced to spend more than 34 years in prison for his confessed role in the death by abuse of a 3-year-old boy, Danny Wing, who was in tears for much of the hearing, emotionally voiced a desire to take back his actions.
“I plan to do what I can with my life … to teach people about drugs and alcohol,” he said at his sentencing hearing, referencing his own heroin addiction during the time of the boy’s death.
A year and a half later, it’s a different story.
“I’m going to pursue my legal defenses,” he said after calling a Chronicle reporter Friday afternoon from prison in Walla Walla.
When asked if he was now denying his role in Jasper Henderling-Warner’s 2014 death, for which he was originally charged with homicide by abuse and pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, Wing backtracked from his confession to prosecutors.
“I would be sorry for that to happen for anybody,” he said. “We’ll have to get into that in a new trial setting.”
Henderling-Warner died in October 2014 after being in the care of Danny and Brenda Wing for more than two months. An autopsy found that he had abuse-related injuries that were weeks- to months-old, and concluded that his primary cause of death was “chronic battered child syndrome,” according to court documents.
Wing noted that he failed a polygraph intended to support his confession — which was part of the reason behind his three-decade sentence — and told The Chronicle Friday that his failure at the lie-detector was proof that his confession was fabricated.
“Any confession backed by a failed lie detector test is not a true confession,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the purpose of our phone call at this point.”
Wing said he confessed because he felt helpless, and he blamed his attorney in the case, Todd Pascoe.
“I had little knowledge of my rights. I’m legally blind,” Wing said. “I had no way to do legal research.”
Wing’s wife, Brenda Wing, also pleaded guilty and confessed to her and her husband’s actions that led to Henderling-Warner’s death.
Danny Wing did not answer directly when asked if his wife’s confession was also not legitimate. However, he said he believed she was not adequately served by her defense attorney.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer dismissed Wing’s revelations as self-serving.
“He can tell all the stories he wants — all the evidence points to him,” Meyer said. “He’s admitted to it. He’s simply trying to game the system.”
Last month, the Washington state Court of Appeals issued a ruling allowing Wing to withdraw his guilty pleas to first-degree manslaughter and third-degree assault of a child in the death of 3-year-old Jasper Henderling Warner, after Wing appealed his 34 ½ year sentence.
Wing did not directly answer if he planned to withdraw his guilty plea when asked by The Chronicle.
“We may not even need to reach that,” he said.
While the court’s ruling already allows Wing to come back to Lewis County to restart his case, he told The Chronicle Friday afternoon that he’s focussing more on a second appeal, which he filed while acting as his own attorney last year.
Wing filed a personal restraint petition with the Washington state Court of Appeals for Division II Nov. 9, 2016, asking the court to dismiss his case, alleging that calls with his defense counsel and related to his defense were “illegally” monitored by the Lewis County Jail.
Wing’s motion argues that Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office staff listened to his phone calls with his first attorney, Steven Thayer, and included his call logs from the jail as evidence.
Wing also argues that “Lewis County officials illegally monitored and recorded all of my inmate calls,” according to the motion.
It is common practice for jails and prisons to record phone calls made by inmates.
“Many of my calls were defense-related as I tried to set up funding, discussed facts related to my cases, and sought assistance from both attorneys and non-attorneys.
The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office responded to Wing’s motion, first saying that his petition will be “moot” once the appeals court issues the official order on their decision in his appeal on the sentence.
The response further states that Wing can argue the issues presented in his personal restraint petition as pre-trial motions in Lewis County once he withdraws his guilty plea as allowed.
Further, the response from Lewis County argues that Wing’s evidence only shows that prosecutors accessed his calls in the jail log, not that they listened to the calls.
“Wing will have the opportunity to litigate this claim when his case is remanded (to Lewis County) once the mandate is issued by this Court,” the prosecutor’s office’s response reads.
The response counters that wing’s claim of “illegal” monitoring on his phone calls from the jail is “without merit.”
“The Lewis County Jail’s practice of monitoring and recording all phone calls, with the exception of known attorney/client privileged phone calls, is lawful.”
Wing now has an opportunity to respond to the Lewis County prosecutor’s response before the Court of Appeals considers his petition and makes a ruling.
“My understanding is he’s petitioning this up to the supreme court,” Meyer said. “This’ll be a while.”
