Man seeks reduced sentence in crossbow slaying case
By Staff Reports
Jul 14, 1990
3/14/09 at 7:56 AM
A former Tulsa police officer convicted in a 1982 crossbow
slaying is asking for a lighter sentence, alleging his attorney
mishandled the case because of an affair with the officer's
former wife.
Jimmie Dean Stohler received a life sentence in 1985 after
his conviction on a first-degree murder charge. He filed
a petition Friday in U.S. District Court in Tulsa asking
for a modified sentence.
Stohler was accused in the slaying of Michele Rae Powers
on Jan. 21, 1982. Powers was shot fatally in the chest with
a crossbow outside her Tulsa apartment.
Stohler alleges his attorney, Tom Gann, "deliberately filed
an inadequate and totally ineffective appeal for personal
reasons and gain."
Stohler alleges his former wife and Gann had an affair before
and after his trial and that it affected Gann's handling
of the case.
Stohler also alleges double jeopardy. He said that separate
charges of conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree
murder should have been tried together because the facts
alleged in both cases were the same.
Stohler, a former theology student at Oral Roberts University,
pleaded no contest to the conspiracy charge in 1982 and
received a 10-year sentence.
He was convicted in 1985 on the murder charge.
Prosecutors alleged Stohler planned the death of Powers,
who was involved in a custody battle with Stohler's best
friend, also a Tulsa police officer.
