A Buffalo Police officer, accused of killing his wife in a domestic violence incident in Sanborn, will face prosecution by the New York Attorney General’s Office and a possible preliminary hearing on a charge of second-degree murder by the end of the week.
Attorney General Letitia James said prosecutors from her office will handle the case against Lance L. Woods, 53, of Lewiston. He faces, at minimum, a second-degree murder charge in the death of his wife, Alexis Skoczylas, 35, inside the couple’s Buffalo Street home late Friday night or early Saturday morning. Additional charges are expected when the case is presented to a Niagara County grand jury in the coming weeks.
Woods pleaded not guilty during an arraignment on the murder charge conducted Sunday at the Niagara County jail’s centralized arraignment part. Town of Somerset Justice of the Peace Pamela Rider ordered Woods held without bail, pending a preliminary hearing in Lewiston Town Court.
State law requires that defendants being held on felony charges receive a hearing within five days to determine if there is probable cause for the charges. As of Monday night, a date and time for Woods’ hearing had not been set.
A defendant has the right to waive their preliminary hearing if their case is scheduled to be reviewed by a grand jury. It was not immediately clear if Woods is being represented by the Niagara County Public Defender’s Office or by private counsel.
Lewiston police said they were called at about 5:14 p.m. Saturday, and dispatched minutes later, along with New York State Police troopers, to the home on Buffalo Street in Sanborn for a “welfare check.” The dispatch transmission indicated that “a female, named Alexis, could not be reached by family members.” The 911 dispatcher said the caller also told them that “the female was going through a divorce.”
The arriving officers said that when they entered the home, they found Skoczylas dead. Law enforcement sources said Skoczylas had suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
Skoczylas and Woods, who had been married for an unknown amount of time, had two children, believed to be between the ages of 7 and 10. A statement from the attorney general’s office indicated that the children may have been in the home at the time of the murder.
The statement said, “While at home with his family, Woods allegedly shot his wife, Ms. Skoczylas, causing her death.”
Buffalo Police Interim Commissioner Craig Macy said his department was contacted by Lewiston police at about 1 a.m. Sunday and told that Woods was being sought in connection with a homicide investigation. Macy said, “Buffalo Police detectives worked in coordination with Lewiston police” to locate Woods.
Sources with knowledge of the police efforts said investigators were “pinging” Woods cell phone to determine his location. He was located at a family member’s home, where he had reportedly dropped off his children.
Cheektowaga and Amherst police took Woods into custody at that location. Law enforcement sources said Woods had told another Buffalo Police officer that he was “trying to go to Pennsylvania.”
Macy said, “The Buffalo Police Internal Affairs Division is also in the process of reviewing the timeline of events of this rapidly evolving situation.”
Woods has been identified as a school resource officer for the Buffalo Police. He was off-duty at the time of his wife’s slaying.
Although he was off-duty, the attorney general’s office said New York Executive Law Section 70-b still applies to the incident. The law requires that the Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) “assesses every incident reported to it where a police officer or a peace officer, including a corrections officer, may have caused the death of a person, by an act or omission. Under the law, the officer may be on-duty or off-duty, and the decedent may be armed or unarmed.”
Lewiston Police Chief Michael Salada said the homicide investigation “remains active.”
Skoczylas has also been identified as a former Niagara County Sheriff’s Office corrections officer. Sheriff Michael Filicetti said Skoczylas worked for “a little over a year” at the county jail.
Filicetti said she left the jail in 2022.