An appeal by death row inmate Bobby R. Wilcoxson, who was convicted for the 1982 suffocation death of Signal Mountain resident Robert Mosher in a murder-for-hire scheme, was denied Monday by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
The unsuccessful post-conviction appeal sought to have Wilcoxson’s 1986 first-degree murder conviction overturned. A Hamilton County trial court had upheld the conviction in 1997, but granted a new sentencing hearing after determining that Wilcoxson was denied his constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase of his original trial.
The evidence at trial revealed that the victim’s wife, Evelyn Mosher, hired Wilcoxson to kill her husband, a chemical engineer with the DuPont Company. Mosher’s body was discovered in the garage of the home he shared with his wife and daughter. A piece of plastic had been shoved down Mosher’s throat, causing his death. He also suffered cuts on his face, one arm and his back.
The murder was unsolved until 1985 when police discovered listings for Wilcoxson and his brother in Evelyn Mosher’s personal address book. A federal penitentiary parolee also implicated Wilcoxson, who was on parole from the same federal penitentiary. Other evidence revealed that Evelyn Mosher collected more than $209,000 in life insurance following her husband’s death. In 1986, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for her role in the killing.