Did cyst play part in McAllen killing?
By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal
The question as to whether Julio Diaz, who turns 36 this Friday, murdered McAllen Businessman and Freemason Robert Wise on July 10, 2023, isn’t in doubt. In fact, Diaz recorded the cold-blooded murder outside the Masonic lodge in the 100 block of N. 11th St. and then uploaded it to his Instagram account.
Diaz is charged with firing multiple shots at Wise as the victim was getting into his truck, hitting him in the face multiple times while holding an electronic device in the other hand, presumably a cellphone set to record the homicide. A nearby surveillance camera also recorded the fatal attack.
A friend with whom Diaz was in contact called McAllen PD, identified the shooter, which led to his arrest the following day, which included a subsequent $1 million bond, which has kept him locked up ever since.
At the time of the murder, Robert Wise had just left the Masonic Temple after the annual installation of new officers. Life was good. He had close friends, a loving family, a thriving business, the respect of his community, and then he ran into his accused murderer, Julio Diaz, who apparently held a deep hatred for all things Masonic.
The Lawsuit
Approximately five months after the murder, on Nov. 27, 2023, Wise’s family would sue the McAllen Freemason Lodge in state District Court (the 464th), claiming its leaders were forewarned that Diaz presented a threat to the lodge and its members, had attacked the lodge several times before the murder, and yet had failed to install adequate surveillance equipment. The family is asking for $1 million in damages.
In that lawsuit, the plaintiffs (Wise’s family) claim that since COVID, attacks against Masonic Lodges have been on the rise across the country.
For example, according to the lawsuit, on March 30, 2022, the McAllen lodge was vandalized with warped graffiti that read: “Sorcery against the Holy Spirit and the human race must all be stoned to death.”
Also, according to the lawsuit: “On July 10, 2023, Brother Robert Wise was shot in the parking lot of McAllen Lodge following the installation ceremony of their lodge officers. Julio Diaz had revealed himself four months earlier, and in the next few months continued to post paranoid threats, rants, and allegations against Masons on his social media pages. The McAllen Lodge ignored what should have been obvious to even the most casual observer. The McAllen Lodge was an easy mark for any criminal to the point that its continued use of the location constituted gross negligence.”
The lodge had purchased surveillance equipment, according to the suit, but at the time of Wise’s murder, had still failed to install the added security.
“Unwilling to take measures to deter criminal activity in the years preceding the murder, the McAllen Lodge had become virtually indefeasible. That hot summer night, as Robert Wise walked out to his rendezvous with death in the unlit, open parking lot, Diaz had the time and the arrogance to video himself as he killed Wise and upload the proof to his Instagram page.”
The McAllen Freemasons mentioned by name in the lawsuit have requested a jury trial.
According to a criminal complaint filed after the murder, Diaz admitted to throwing a brick through the front door of the McAllen Masonic Lodge approximately 10 months before killing Wise, while trying to set the place on fire. In February of 2023, he also tried to light a fire at the Masonic Lodge in Weslaco.
Question is, even if the Masons had installed a surveillance camera, how would that have stopped Diaz from (allegedly) ending the life of Robert Wise?
A motive for the murder has yet to be established, as well as his presumed hostility to Freemasons. Despite the digital recording of the murder, Diaz is still presumed innocent until proven guilty. Currently, it looks like his defense team has a plan to challenge the murder charge — alleged neurological problems.
The Victim
At the time of his murder, Robert Wise owned his own commercial trucking school — Wise CDL — after spending more than 23 years as a long-haul trucker, shifting gears on the open road, saving up money to one day open his own business and spend more time at home.
You can usually tell the heart of a man, or a woman, for that matter, by the comments people leave behind on the deceased’s obituary page.
In the case of Robert Wise, only 55 when he was murdered, the memories listed on the Ric Brown Family Funeral Home web page say a lot about the loss both he and his family suffered at the hands of the murderer:
# “His smile was contagious.”
# “He was a kind good hearted man. I never saw him in anger or fear.”
# “Kind, selfless, humble and helpful without expecting anything in return. Always giving his 100% and more in everything he did. Excellent parent, Loving husband and an Exceptional Bandbooster.”
# “He would go above and beyond even if others didn’t know”
There are also multiple “memories” shared by both his employees and those future truckers he taught, underscoring what a loss his family and the community suffered with his murder.
The Alleged Killer’s Defense
This Monday, Jan. 22, the attorney representing the accused killer, McAllen-based Lennard K. Whittaker, acting as appointed public defender, filed a motion in the 139th state District Court (Judge “Bobby” Flores), asking that the court grant a motion that would order the employment of a neurologist to advise “Defense Counsel for this case.”
According to Whittaker’s motion, his client, accused murderer Julio Diaz, is in need of “a neurologist to assist Counsel in making determinations about competency and advise on possible further diagnostic examinations.”
Self-diagnosis is also on the defense table: “Defendant himself claimed a significant psychiatric diagnosis.”
In his motion for employment of a neurologist filed Monday, Whittaker writes this in his motion to the court: “Since our last hearing, 6 November 2023, Defense Counsel has discovered from Mexican medical reports from 2019, that DEFENDANT was diagnosed with an untreated symptomatic arachnoid cyst in the sellar region of his brain. It was compressing DEFENDANT’S, [pituitary] gland.”
In his motion, Attorney Whittaker claims that medical science may be on his side and that of his client: “National Institutes of Health in 2018 published an article on management of arachnoid cysts. Symptoms of untreated, symptomatic brain cysts include: dizziness, nausea, vomiting, worsening of mood, mental health status changes, ataxia, seizures, and hearing loss. Surgical intervention is sometimes possible.”
Doing an online search for — “can arachnoid cysts turn someone homicidal” — turned up a few news stories, including one published by the NY Times in March of 2017, headlined: “Did his mind make him do it? How neuroscience entered the courtroom.”
How well the “cyst defense” has worked overall in criminal proceedings, especially with the advent of the MRI, however, is yet to be determined and would take a lot more research than the space this story would allow.
Plus, proof that Julio Diaz even has an arachnoid cyst must still be proven by an MRI based in the U.S. One, if done in Mexico, won’t cut it, presumably.
Also, the stories found online involving violent behavior possibly tied to these types of cysts tend to come out of the blue, with no forewarning. (Source: National Library of Medicine.) Sane one minute, a homicidal maniac the next.
In the case of murder defendant Julio Diaz, he was (allegedly) exhibiting violent behavior (e.g. trying to set the McAllen Masonic hall on fire in September 2022 and the Weslaco hall on fire in February of 2023) months before he reportedly gunned down Robert Wise in July of 2023 while filming the murder, no less, and posting it on his Instagram account.