Milo Wallace. (Image via El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office.)
A 56-year-old man in California will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his mother and brother in the elderly woman’s home in 2015, prosecutors announced. El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Vicki L. Ashworth on Monday ordered Milo Wallace to serve two life sentences without the possibility of parole plus an additional 67 years to life in prison for fatally shooting 71-year-old Sandra Wallace and 38-year-old Matthew Wallace.
According to a press release from prosecutors, deputies with the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 11, 2015 responded to a 911 call about a possible double homicide at an address located in the 5400 block of Rocky Ridge Road. The caller, later identified as Brook Wallace, Matthew’s wife, told the 911 dispatcher she was afraid that her brother-in-law may have killed her husband.
Brook explained to the dispatcher that earlier in the day, Matthew had gone to his mother’s home to help her with some housework but never returned home, according to a report from South Tahoe Now. Unable to get in touch with Matthew, Brook reportedly drove to Sandra’s home looking for her husband. She was accompanied by her brother, whom she reportedly asked to join her because Matthew and his brother Milo had recently been arguing over their future inheritance. Specifically, the brothers’ spat reportedly hinged on which of them would inherit the property where Sandra lived.
Upon arriving at the home, Brook knocked on the door. Milo opened the door with a handgun trained on his sister-in-law’s face, evidence revealed.
Brook and her brother are said to have reacted quickly by subduing Milo, wrestling the gun out of his possession, and detaining him until law enforcement authorities arrived on the scene and placed Milo under arrest. He was taken into custody at approximately 1:40 a.m.
Investigators then searched the home and found Sandra’s body in her bedroom. She had sustained a single gunshot wound and was pronounced dead on the scene. Deputies then located Matthew’s body in the backyard of the property. He had sustained two gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Officials with the sheriff’s office at the time of the murders reportedly told the Mountain Democrat that Milo Wallace lived with his mother when when she was murdered.
Prosecutors at trial introduced evidence showing that Milo was in possession of the weapon used to kill Sandra and Matthew at the time of the murders.
An El Dorado jury on May 22, 2022 found Milo Wallace guilty on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder in the deaths of his mother and brother. The jury also found Milo guilty on one count of attempted murder for the attack on Brook Wallace.
According to South Tahoe Now, Milo’s father, Leonard Francis Wallace, died in February 2015 at the age of 77.
[image via El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office]