A suspended Buffalo Police officer is now accused of shooting his wife, leaving her to die, and trying to clean up the evidence of his alleged crime, all while “researching” jobs and real estate in Florida.
The claims were made by an assistant New York State Attorney General during an arraignment for Lance L. Woods on Wednesday morning in Niagara County Court. A Niagara County grand jury had previously charged Woods, 53, of Lewiston, with a single count of second-degree murder in an indictment that was unsealed during his arraignment before County Court Judge Caroline Wojtaszek.
Wearing an orange Orleans County jail jumpsuit, Woods did not speak during his court appearance, but his defense attorney Barry Covert entered a plea of not guilty on the charge.
Woods is accused of killing his wife, Alexis Skoczylas, 35, inside the couple’s Buffalo Street, Sanborn, home late on the night of Feb. 13 during a domestic violence incident. Both Covert and assistant AG James Marra described the evidence in the case as “voluminous.”
Marra indicated that police had seized “multiple electronic devices” and that Woods had made statements to investigators. The assistant attorney general asked Wojtaszek to order that Woods continue to be held without bail as a “potential flight risk.”
“He shot his wife in the head after an argument where she told him she was leaving him for another man,” Marra told the judge.
The assistant AG said the gunshot wound did not immediately kill Skoczylas, but that Woods “failed to render any aid” that may have saved her life. Instead, Marra said, Woods moved Skoczylas’s body to the basement of their home, while trying to clean up the blood-soaked crime scene and put his wife’s body in a 50-gallon drum.
Marra said Woods then “researched” jobs and homes for sale in Florida.
Criminal investigators previously said that the couple’s two children, believed to be between the ages of 7 and 10, were present during the shooting. When Woods reportedly left the home, during the day on Feb. 14, detectives said he took his children with him to a Buffalo Police district station, where he met with a supervisor.
Law enforcement sources said Woods told the supervisor that he was “trying to go to Pennsylvania.” The supervisor reportedly allowed Woods to leave the station to take his children to his parents’ home near the Amherst-Cheektowaga border.
That supervisor, identified only as a police “captain,” has been suspended with pay pending an ongoing investigation.
Buffalo police said they were contacted by Lewiston police at about 1 a.m. Feb. 15 and were told that Woods was sought in connection with a homicide investigation. Sources with knowledge of the police efforts said investigators were “pinging” Woods’ cell phone to determine his location.
He was reportedly located at his parents’ home, where he had dropped off his children, and was taken into custody by Amherst police.
Woods was off-duty at the time of the shooting. He joined the Buffalo Police Department in 2008 and had risen to the rank of detective. He was assigned as a school resource officer (SRO).
Neither prosecutors nor investigators have said how long Skoczylas and Woods were married. Skoczylas was 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 and left her job in 2022.
Covert told Wojtaszek that Woods is “a religious man.” The lawyer said Woods’ defense would be benefitted by his ability to be out of jail and working with his attorneys.
“There is just simply no reason to believe he won’t show up in court or is a risk to the community,” Covert said.
Wojtaszek said she would continue to jail Woods.
“He’s facing up to life in prison,” the judge said. “He told law enforcement officers he was going to cross the New York-Pennsylvania border.”
Lewiston Police Chief Michael Salada said his department had no history of calls for service at the couple’s home prior to Feb. 14.
“There were no records of domestic violence calls there,” Salada said.
Lewiston police said they were called at 5:14 p.m. Feb. 14, and dispatched minutes later, along with New York State Police troopers, to a 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.
Woods’ prosecution is being handled by the New York Attorney General’s Office under New York Executive Law Section 70-b. That 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.”