Man charged as accessory in woman's fatal beating
A man who told police he saw a teenager beat his mother to death has been charged with aiding in the slaying, court records show.
Josiah Israel Sklar, 19, was charged Monday with a felony count of accessory after the fact.
Sklar told police that he saw Henry David "Hank" Laird, 17, fatally beat his mother, Linda Laird, with the butt of a shotgun, reports state.
Linda Laird was found dead Jan. 22 in her home in the 7400 block of South Urbana Avenue, police said.
Sklar was arrested early Jan. 23. The charge states that he helped Hank Laird avoid apprehension.
Sklar is in the Tulsa Jail. A court date has not been set.
Hank Laird is charged with first-degree murder, and the court entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf last week. He is due back in court March 14.
Hank Laird's juvenile record includes three domestic assault-and-battery cases in which his mother was the victim, court records show.
- JERRY WOFFORD, World Staff Writer
Tulsan accused of lewd conduct with teen girls
A Tulsa man was arrested on a complaint of making a lewd proposal to a minor when he picked up two runaway teenagers in his car Saturday.
Marvin Maurice Townsend, 57, is accused of touching a 15-year-old girl "on the outside of her underwear," according to police records.
A 14-year-old who reportedly witnessed the incident told police that Townsend also unzipped his pants and asked the victim to touch his penis, the report states.
Detectives said Townsend had given a ride to the teenagers, who had been reported to the Tulsa Police Department as runaways, when the crime is alleged to have occurred about 4 p.m. near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Pine Street.
Townsend is in the Tulsa Jail with bail set at $25,000.
- AMANDA BLAND, World Staff Writer
Steakhouse's liquor license is suspended temporarily
An Outback Steakhouse in Tulsa is under a liquor license suspension through Wednesday as a penalty for selling alcohol to an underage customer in August.
The owners of the Outback Steakhouse at 97th Street and Riverside Drive agreed to a settlement with the Oklahoma Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission that included a 10-day license suspension and a $1,000 fine.
The penalty originally was to be a $3,000 fine and 30-day suspension.
The restaurant can still sell low-point beer, which is governed by Oklahoma Tax Commission permits.
ABLE officials said the restaurant's management cooperated with the investigation and fired the employee who sold alcohol to a minor.
The restaurant can begin selling alcoholic beverages again Thursday, officials said.
- FROM STAFF REPORTS
BA man handed 30-year prison term in rape case
A Broken Arrow man who used sharp weapons to rape and assault a woman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
John Scott Jones, 61, pleaded guilty last week to four felonies - rape by instrumentation, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and domestic assault and battery by strangulation.
In August 2011, a woman who lived in the same apartment as Jones reported that he attacked her there, according to Broken Arrow police.
She said Jones checked her cellphone and "found messages on her phone that he did not like," an arrest report says.
The woman said Jones punched her in the face, choked her, and kept her confined in a bedroom. She said he got a "bayonet" and used it to penetrate her, the arrest report says.
Jones, who had gathered several knives in the bedroom, used them to cut her before she managed to escape and get help, the arrest report says.
In accordance with a plea deal, Tulsa County District Judge Bill Musseman sentenced Jones to 30 years in prison for assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
Assistant District Attorney Julie Doss said that is an "85 percent" crime, so Jones must spend more than 25 years behind bars before he can be eligible for parole.
He received lesser, concurrent sentences for the three other crimes, which won't add to his overall prison time.
- BILL BRAUN, World Staff Writer
BA cattle killers must pay $85,000 in restitution
Two Broken Arrow men who were convicted of killing cattle with a bow and arrow in Rogers County in 2011 were ordered Friday to pay $85,000 in restitution.
Traton Tyler Vanderpool, 20, and Jared Wade Barless, 20, were released from the Department of Corrections' regimented inmate discipline program and placed on four years' probation each, a news release from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association says.
They were ordered last February to serve one year in a state boot camp program.
The men used compound bows to shoot nine cows, killing six, at Oologah-area ranches on Aug. 9, 2011. Authorities said then that the men reportedly shot the cattle out of boredom.
The livestock were worth an estimated $19,000.
"We're glad to see that the victims of this senseless crime, the ranchers who lost their cattle including a young 4-H member who lost her show calf, will receive proper restitution from the persons responsible," Rogers County Sheriff's Office Special Ranger John Cummings said in a statement.
"The amount of restitution ordered sends a clear message to would be criminals that stealing or killing livestock in Oklahoma will not be tolerated."
- FROM STAFF REPORTS
Classes canceled; faculty member has meningitis
OKAY - Okay Public Schools canceled classes Monday after a faculty member contracted viral meningitis, Interim Superintendent David Harlow said.
Workers disinfected buildings Monday at the Wagoner County school, which has an enrollment of about 500 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade, Harlow said.
Classes are expected to resume Tuesday, he said.
Viral meningitis is an infection of the covering of the brain and spinal cord, reports show. It can affect babies, children and adults, although it is usually less severe than bacterial meningitis and normally clears up without special treatment. Most patients recover completely on their own within seven to 10 days.
Enteroviruses, the most common cause of viral meningitis, are most often spread from person to person through fecal contamination but also can be spread through respiratory secretions, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- RHETT MORGAN, World Staff Writer
Bail set for B'ville woman in deadly traffic accident
BARTLESVILLE - Bail is set at $25,000 for a Bartlesville woman who is charged in Washington County District Court with first-degree manslaughter in a fatal traffic crash.
Jessica Ann Brunelle, 24, is charged with unlawfully, willfully, intentionally and feloniously causing the death of Phyliss Fay Jackson, 69, during a Sept. 28 collision.
Brunelle told police she woke up late that day of the crash and had to get herself and her children to school, an affidavit states.
Brunelle reportedly said she was driving 60 mph on the curvy county road, but the airbag module in her truck showed that she was traveling 83 mph when her vehicle struck a truck driven by Jackson, the affidavit states.
The collision occurred just before 9 a.m. in foggy conditions, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers reported.
Troopers said Jackson was pinned in her vehicle for about 20 minutes before Oglesby firefighters were able to free her. She died at Jane Phillips Medical Center in Bartlesville, reports state.
Brunelle was injured in the accident, along with her two daughters, ages 6 and 4 at the time, the affidavit states. All three were treated for injuries at Jane Phillips Medical Center and released.
Brunelle is due in court Friday.
- LAURA SUMMERS, World Correspondent
OSBI offering reward for info in 13-month-old killing
GROVE - The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed a Delaware County man more than a year ago.
Phillip Porter was found dead Jan. 12, 2012, in his motorhome northwest of Sailboat Bridge on Grand Lake. His throat had been slashed. The state Medical Examiner's Office determined that Porter died of multiple sharp-force wounds.
The OSBI has conducted numerous interviews but still needs the public's help to solve the case. Anyone with information is asked to call the OSBI hotline at 800-522-8017.
- SHEILA STOGSDILL, World Correspondent
