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.

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A woman who accidentally ran over and killed 22 month old niece in Southwest Oklahoma City this week was arrested on a felony complaint of causing a fatal accident while driving without a license.

Vivre Lizeth Vargas, 20, was having a garage sale at her house in the 1600 block of SW 32 when she decided to move her pickup, police said.

Her niece, Yailine Archiniega Vargas, fell behind the vehicle, and Vivre Vargas backed into her when she put the pickup into reverse instead of park, according to police reports.

Yailine was pronounced dead at the scene.

Vevre Vargas was arrested on the felony complaint, as well as municipal complaints of not having a valid license and illegal backing.

If you have been charged with murder, sex crime, fraud, assault, etc., please contact The Swain Law Firm at (405) 501-0827 for your free consultation.

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A Henryetta teenager has been charged with second degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of another teenage boy, a judge said.

Landon Lee Jewell, 13, of Henryetta, died Dec. 10 after he was shot in the head at the home of Henryetta police officer Matthew Duke.
 

“A second degree murder charge was filed against a juvenile arising out of the death of another teenager in Henryetta,” Okmulgee County District Judge Duane Woodliff said. The charge was filed in Okmulgee County Juvenile Court.

Police said two boys, one of whom was Duke’s stepson, were alone in the house with Landon at the time of the shooting. After the shooting, Duke voluntarily took a three-week leave from the department.

Don Barbee, Landon’s step-grandfather, said in December that Landon was sitting on a bed sending text messages and the other two boys were arguing over a girl. One of the boys picked up a hunting rifle and shot Landon, Barbee said.

Woodliff did not identify the suspect, citing juvenile privacy laws.

None of Jewell’s relatives could be reached for comment.

The case was assigned to Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore after former Okmulgee County District Attorney Tom Giulioli recused his office from the investigation. Giulioli said several of his staff members have relatives who work for the Henryetta Police Department.
 
Henryetta police released the recording of the 911 call in December. During the telephone call, one person can be heard in the background crying hysterically as a man and woman give directions to the 911 operator. The woman tells the operator “a little boy got shot. … It was an accident.”
 
Landon was a seventh grader at Henryetta Middle School.
If you have been charged with murder, sex crime, fraud, assault, etc., please contact The Swain Law Firm at (405) 501-0827 for your free consultation.

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A Drumright man was arrested on a felony murder charge on his involvement in a copper theft attempt that killed a man, police said.

Cody Holland, 18, was electrocuted while trying to steal copper from a well site on the south side of Drumright, according to a Drumright Police Department release.

Jacob Lee Matherly, 19, was charged Friday with felony murder and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested without incident that day and booked into the Creek County Jail.

If you have been charged with murder, sex crime, fraud, assault, etc., please contact The Swain Law Firm at (405) 501-0827 for your free consultation.

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An Oklahoma City man faces murder and child abuse charges in connection with the death of his daughter.

Sean Devon Brooks, 31, was charged Friday in Oklahoma County District Court with first degree murder and felony child abuse. He is accused of killing Serenity Deal, 5, at a northeast Oklahoma City apartment complex where the two lived.

Serenity had multiple bruises on her body and face, the state Medical Examiner’s office reported.

Brooks told police Serenity fell to the floor with a convulsion after he helped her out of the shower.

Brooks was granted sole custody of the girl in April after Serenity’s mother was accused of molesting a 10 year old boy. Her mother, Samantha Ann Deal, 36, of Chandler is set to be sentenced July 5.

Serenity’s maternal grandmother tried to adopt the girl, according to court records.

If you have been charged with murder, sex crime, fraud, assault, etc., please contact The Swain Law Firm at (405) 501-0827 for your free consultation.

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Police released the 911 tape Friday from the homicide of a man who police say was pushed from an apartment on the 25th story of a high rise building this week.

Amber Michelle Hilberling, 19, was arrested in the death of her husband, Joshua Hilberling, 23, who fell 17 stories Tuesday from the University Club Apartments tower at 1722 S. Carson Ave. to a parking garage.
 
If you have been charged with murder, sex crime, fraud, assault, etc., please contact The Swain Law Firm at (405) 501-0827 for your free consultation.

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Law Offices of Matt Swain

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A man charged in the death of a teenage girl said he had to drag the body of the girl from a car into his house after two other people charged in the case refused to help move the unconscious victim.

Britton C. Hobbs, 19, of Wilson, told an investigator that Samantha Ozment, 15, passed out after inhaling a dust cleaning spray. Hobbs said Ozment turned blue after he got her into the house, so he attempted to perform CPR and called for an ambulance.
 
The state medical examiner’s office ruled Ozment died after inhaling the chemical difluoroethane.
 
Hobbs has been charged in Carter County District Court with first degree manslaughter.
 
Dillon K. Porterfield, 19, of Healdton, and Jessica R. Todd, 19, of Ardmore, also face first degree manslaughter charges in connection with the Jan. 1 death of Ozment, who lived in Ardmore.
 
According to an arrest affidavit, Hobbs, Porterfield and Todd told investigators they were riding around with Ozment in Todd’s car on New Year’s Eve and stopped at the Walmart in Ardmore to buy two cans of dust-cleaning spray, which they took turns using to “get high.”
 
The charges were filed last week after a five month investigation, but the victim’s grandmother, Charlotte Ozment, said they came as no surprise to her. Charlotte Ozment said she raised Samantha Ozment.
 
Charlotte Ozment said Tuesday her granddaughter’s death has been “completely and totally devastating.”
 
But she said she does not think her granddaughter was intentionally killed.

“I think she went along with it,” Ozment said.
 
She said Samantha Ozment was friends with Todd, but she doesn’t know how well she knew the two men implicated in the case.
 
Samantha Ozment was a sophomore at Ardmore High School, Charlotte Ozment said.
 
“She was just bubbly, laughing all the time,” the grandmother said. “She had her problems, but she was a pretty good girl.”
 
Todd has been released on $10,000 bail, and Porterfield and Hobbs remain jailed on a $15,000 bail, a clerk at the Carter County Sheriff’s Department said. They are scheduled to appear in court July 19 before Judge Thomas Baldwin.
 
A woman who answered the telephone at an address listed for Todd said Todd had not lived there in several years. The woman said she did not want to talk to a reporter.
 
Hobbs told investigators Samantha Ozment passed out on the rear floorboard of the car and he dragged her into his house. The investigator wrote in the affidavit that he saw scrapes and bruises on the teen’s body when he went to the emergency room.
 
Samantha Ozment was taken to Mercy Hospital in Healdton, where she died early New Year’s Day.

If you have been charged with murder, sex crime, fraud, assault, etc., please contact The Swain Law Firm at (405) 501-0827 for your free consultation.

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Canadian County authorities have scheduled an Oct. 3 trial date for a man accused of killing his girlfriend and her four children.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Hesse said Wednesday officials set the trial date for 28-year-old Joshua Steven Durcho.  Durcho faces five counts of  first-degree murder in the deaths of 25-year-old Summer Rust and her children, 7-year-olds Kirsten and Autumn Rust; 4-year-old Teagin Rust and 3-year-old Evynn Garas.

Their bodies were discovered on Jan. 12, 2009, at their El Reno apartment.

They also allege Durcho killed the woman to keep her from contacting police about two outstanding warrants for failing to appear in court on charges of driving under the influence of drug possession.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

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.

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A Chandler woman who pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in the heat death of a toddler has received a three-year suspended sentence.

Prosecutors charged 21-year-old Jessica Lorene Holmes after two-year-old Atrinity Hasbell died when she was left in a hot minivan on May 25, 2010.  The temperature was around 90 that day.

The toddler’s mother says Holmes, who was her roommate, was to have dropped Atrinity off at a Meeker day care when Holmes left her two sons there.  But when the woman returned to pick up their children, Atrinity was not at the day care and the woman found her in the van.

A local newspaper reports Lincoln County District Judge Cindy Ashwood sentenced Holmes after prosecutors agreed to the suspended sentence.  Records show Atriniti’s family consented to the sentence.   

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

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