New details unveiled during Charlotte County murder trial

Published:
Keith Wilson

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. New details on the death of 3-year-old Pilar Rodriguez were revealed during court today.

Five-time convicted felon Jessie Clapham told jurors that Keith Wilson confessed to killing Pilar after he saw her foot dangling out of a trunk.

“I walked out there and I glanced at the trunk of the car and they had something wrapped in a blanket and I seen a little purple foot sticking out,” Clapham said. “They shut the trunk and told me to go back inside and mind my business.”

Clapham’s statement opened the case back in 2009. The statement helped lead investigators to Wilson.

Wilson is accused of beating Pilar to death and discarding her body.

“I asked him if that was the little girl that I seen in the trunk and he said yeah, she has suffocated somehow,” Clapham said.

Clapham’s testimony is inconsistent with Pilar’s babysitter, Melissa Harding-Jones. Last week in court, Harding-Jones said Pilar was beaten, stuffed into a garbage bag and then disposed of.

Charlotte County deputies searched wooded areas, and even drained a lake looking for Pilar.

Pilar’s body was never found.

Clapham told jurors that Wilson said police would never find her because she is in a septic tank.

Prosecution plans to rest their case tomorrow.

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