$6.5 million verdict awarded in inmate’s slayingveredicto de 6,5 millones de dólares otorgado en asesinato de recluso

Family members of a Lawton private prison inmate who was strangled to death in his cell have been awarded a $6.5 million verdict in a wrongful-death lawsuit.

Lawton Correctional Facility inmate Ronald Sites was strangled in 2005 by cellmate Robert Cooper, said Tulsa attorney Gary Richardson, who represented Sites’ son and two daughters in the wrongful death lawsuit. Cooper was later convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison.

Richardson said Cooper should never have been put in the cell because he had a prison history that made the killing predictable.

Nine months before being placed in a cell with Sites, Cooper had been placed in isolation by the prison staff because “he told a counselor he sat on his bunk with a sheet in his hand, fighting off the urge to kill his cellmate,” Richardson said.

Cooper’s prison file showed he had stabbed another inmate and had twice been caught with shanks in his possession, the attorney said.

Richardson said his investigation revealed the staff knew that Cooper, already a convicted murderer, wanted to go back to McAlester and had concluded the only way he was going to get to do that was to kill someone.

If you are being charged with a criminal offense and need legal assistance, please contact The Swain Law Firm at (405)501-0827 to receive a free consultation.

Law Offices of Matt Swain

405-501-0827