Wahl, a 45-year-old convicted murderer, took off from his halfway house back in April and, neighbors say, began squatting in a pickup camper sitting on pallets on the lawn of a home in the 5100 block of Cambridge Way, earning his keep by doing yard work at nearby homes.
In recent weeks, the scruffy but pleasant man became something of a regular at the Flight Deck just around the block from his new digs, said bartender Kimberly Hunter.
"On the weekends he would come in -- I've got a band -- he would dance, by himself, all night long," she said. "Happy go-lucky. Never bothered anybody. Dance, shoot pool, strike up a conversation with you."
He'd last been in Saturday, but since seeing his mug shot in the news this week as a "person of interest" in the slaying of Elisa Orcutt, 47, the staff was on the lookout for him to return, she said. When he finally did Thursday night, they called police, who surrounded the bar and sent in teams of undercover cops to arrest Wahl on a felony parole violation for leaving the halfway house.
Wahl remained jailed on the warrant Friday but had not been charged in connection with the death of Orcutt, who was found dead Tuesday in her home across the street from the camper. She was last seen alive Friday, when Wahl was working in her yard.
He declined an interview request through the Department of Corrections.
When Wahl showed up at the Flight Deck on Thursday night, his beer of choice, draft MGD, was down because of a problem with the cooler, Hunter said. A waitress offered him a bottle instead, but he turned it down, saying he was waiting for some friends.
As he was at the pay phone, flipping through the phone book, he didn't seem to realize that the bar was fast being surrounded by police. Officers set up a perimeter, then sent in a couple pairs of undercover vice cops to scope things out, said Sgt. Kathy Lacey, supervisor of the vice unit.
"I saw several people come in I've never seen before. I know most everybody that comes in this bar. And they actually looked like bounty hunters to me," Hunter said. "The way they were kind of looking and talking with each other and pointing, I'm thinking, 'Man, I hope those are the cops. If not, it's some local boys that just recognized that guy.' "
Just about as soon as they entered the bar, the cops saw Wahl get up and go to the bathroom, Lacey said. Wahl was unarmed and surrendered without incident in the men's room.
"They followed him right in," Lacey said. "He was in there a matter of a second. I mean, they were right on his heels going into the bathroom."
Back in 1983, Wahl was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Edward "Larry" Delany, 40, whom he slashed about 40 times after a one-night sexual encounter. He was sentenced to serve 45 years and was first paroled in 2005. Since then, he has repeatedly been arrested on parole and probation violations, then set free.
Police Lt. Dave Parker said Wahl is not eligible for immediate bail and can be held on the parole violation for as long as a judge allows. His history of absconding and his standing as a person of interest in a homicide would likely work against him being released soon, he said.
"In this situation the process is prolonged, shall we say," Parker said. "If you can put a guy away on something to hold him, that gives you a little more breathing space. Now (detectives) have the room to continue their investigation without concern of losing this person of interest in the woodwork, so to speak."
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