Garrison to stand trial in 1989 death

Friday, February 25th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A man who admitted killing two children when he was a juvenile must stand trial in the 1989 dismemberment death of a 13-year-old boy who was last seen getting into a car with Garrison at an auto body shop.

Tulsa County Special District Judge Todd Singer rejected a defense attorney's argument that there was no probable cause to try Wayne Henry Garrison for first-degree murder. Prosecutors presented 19 witnesses at Garrison's preliminary hearing, including the victim's mother and Garrison's former friend.

Earlier this month, Singer ruled that Garrison was mentally competent to stand trial in the death of Justin Wiles. Justin disappeared June 20, 1989, after he was last seen getting into Garrison's car. Parts of his body were found four days later in Lake Bixhoma and on the lake's shores in Wagoner County, authorities said.

Garrison, 40, was arrested on the murder charge in October as he left a North Carolina prison where he had served a sentence for drugging a boy.

As a juvenile, Garrison admitted to killing two children in Oklahoma. When he was 13, Garrison was confined to a mental hospital after his 4-year-old cousin was found strangled under a house.

When he was 14 and on a pass from the hospital, Garrison killed a 3-year-old boy whose body was found under Garrison's mother's home. Garrison pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and was sentenced in 1975 to four years in prison. "It took a long time," Joe Fitzer, Justin's brother, said Thursday. "It's worth the wait." An arraignment hearing was scheduled for Monday morning.