Exactly two years after two people were killed in a church parking lot, Tulsa County jurors spared the life Friday night of a man they had found guilty of the murders.
The jury had found Zane Atchison, 26, of Broken Arrow guilty on Wednesday of two counts of first-degree murder for the Aug. 30, 2011, shooting deaths of Patrick Shawn, 27, and Kaylyn Kosofsky, 24, outside the Open Bible Fellowship, 1439 E. 71st St.
The jury also found him guilty of larceny of an auto.
On Friday, the jurors sentenced Atchison to two life without parole terms for the murders and to life with parole possible for the auto theft conviction.
Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty for the two murders.
Shawn was shot in the head and was found dead on the church parking lot near the QuikTrip convenience store at 1415 E. 71st St. Kosofsky was found dead in the passenger seat of a car in another area of the church parking lot.
Prosecutors maintained that Shawn was the main target and that Kosofsky was also shot because she could identify Atchison. She was shot multiple times.
In a closing argument, First Assistant District Attorney Doug Drummond said there was “absolutely no doubt” that Atchison was guilty.
After the sentences were announced late Friday, Drummond said: “The jury has spoken. It was a hard-fought trial.”
Defense attorney Gregg Graves had urged jurors to sentence Atchison to life without parole on each of the murder counts and to life with parole on the stolen auto count. The jury concluded that those sentences were appropriate.
“We’re relieved, but nobody is celebrating,” Graves said after the sentences were announced.
District Judge Bill Musseman scheduled Atchison’s formal sentencing for Sept. 9.
Atchison’s co-defendant, Joel Rosales Pina, is set to stand trial later.
Prosecutors say Shawn owed Rosales Pina money for drugs and that Atchison was the triggerman. A Tulsa police affidavit says a witness told police that Shawn owed Rosales Pina approximately $45,000 “in relation to drug dealings.”
Drummond and fellow prosecutor Steve Kunzweiler alleged that two “aggravating circumstances,” as defined by statute, supported their request for the death penalty for Atchison.
They maintained that he knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person and that the probability exists that he would commit additional criminal acts of violence and constitute a continuing threat to society.
A jury can impose the death penalty if it finds that at least one aggravating circumstance exists, but it can spare a defendant’s life even if it finds that multiple aggravating circumstances exist.
In deliberations Friday evening, the jurors found that no aggravating circumstances existed.
The jurors had heard victim impact statements on Thursday from Mary Kosofsky and Krysten Kosofsky, the mother and sister of the slain woman, respectively. They described the pain and heartache that resulted from her death.
Mitigating testimony was heard from Atchison’s relatives on Friday.
“Mitigation is life,” Graves had told jurors, explaining that state law never requires the death penalty.
The most recent death sentence imposed in Tulsa County was against Raymond Eugene Johnson, who was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by a Tulsa jury in 2009 for the June 2007 deaths of Brooke Whitaker, 24, and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya Whitaker.
Prosecutors said Johnson beat Brooke Whitaker in the head with a hammer, set her on fire and left her and the baby to burn in their gasoline-doused home.
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