Murder Suspect Refuses to Appear in Court After Alleged Confession to Police

San Rafael--A transient man who allegedly confessed to a 1998 murder on the Kentfield campus of College of Marin refused to come out of his jail cell and enter a plea at arraignment two days after his 2017 arrest.

According to Officer Dustin Ruiz of the College of Marin campus police, Gary Steven Wild, 59, turned himself in to police Oct. 8, 2017 and allegedly confessed to the murder of an acquaintance in what Officer Ruiz calls a “love triangle.”

Ruiz said Wild was hanging out with a man and woman on the outskirts of the COM campus near the ecology section, where transients were known to hang out, party and even camp at the time of the murder. The victim remains unidentified until notification of next of kin.

Around the time of the death, COM police responded to a call from an anonymous passerby who spotted the body. Police found the victim unresponsive with no obvious signs as to cause of death.

According to Ruiz, details of the alleged confession included a statement by the suspect that “he and the victim got into a fight over a woman who also frequented the encampment.”

According to the Marin Independent Journal, the victim was believed to have died from a heart attack. While Wild became a person of interest in the early days of the case, the Marin County Coroner could not determine a cause of death, and no charges were filed.

The alleged confession now marks the case as a second degree murder, and Wild is being held without bail at the Marin County Jail. The cause of death is now suspected to be asphyxiation by strangulation according the Marin Independent Journal.

In a surprise move, on the day of arraignment, Wild would not leave his cell to appear. If Wild refuses to appear at the evidentiary hearing at the Marin Superior Court on May 13 Sheriffs may forcibly remove Wild from his cell.