Local, State briefs
BY Staff Reports
Saturday, February 09, 2013
2/09/13 at 3:23 AM
Tulsa man is sentenced in kidnapping, sexual assault
A Tulsa man faces prison sentences totaling 34 years upon being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman who police said escaped from his home by crawling naked through a bedroom window.
Tulsa County jurors on Thursday found Eric Joseph Beard guilty of four felonies and one misdemeanor.
He received sentences of 10 years each for kidnapping and first-degree rape, seven years each on two counts of forcible sodomy, and 90 days for assault and battery. Jurors also imposed fines totaling $6,000.
Beard, 35, was found not guilty of one count each of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree rape and forcible sodomy.
Police reported that Beard picked up the woman near 11th Street and Utica Avenue on Feb. 5, 2012, and that she agreed to go to his residence in the 12300 block of East 13th Street.
Assistant District Attorney Michelle Keely said evidence indicated that the woman had agreed to perform a sexual act for money but did not consent to being attacked, choked, raped and bound with duct tape.
Defense lawyer Beverly Atteberry said the sex was consensual.
Beard has felony convictions for robbery with a firearm and trafficking in illegal drugs.
District Judge Jefferson Sellers set formal sentencing for Feb. 21.
- BILL BRAUN, World Staff Writer
Ex-Liberty football coach charged with molestation
A former Liberty High School head football coach was charged Friday with lewd molestation involving a student at the school.
Earl Stanley Tennial, 29, is accused of kissing and touching the chest of a girl who was 15 at the time of the alleged incident in December, his arrest report states.
Tulsa County sheriff's deputies went to the school Dec. 14 to investigate a report from the administration that Tennial had been sending inappropriate text messages to the student, the report says.
The district, which is in southern Tulsa County, also informed the girl's mother.
Tennial told a deputy that "on or about Dec. 5 he received the initial text message" from the student, the report says.
He said the tone of the texts initially was "casual, but at some point the content of the texting developed a sexual theme," the document states.
There is no allegation that sexual intercourse occurred. However, the report says the girl said that as they were sitting at his desk, Tennial placed his hands on her waist and pulled her close and that the two kissed for two or three minutes.
Tennial was arrested Dec. 20 but posted bond and was released from the Tulsa Jail that evening, records show.
Liberty Superintendent Donna Campo said Friday night that Tennial was fired last month.
- DAVID HARPER, World Staff Writer
City councilor expecting to leave hospital today
Tulsa City Councilor Skip Steele said Friday that he has been diagnosed with strep pneumonia and expects to be released from the hospital Saturday.
"I feel fine," Steele said.
The District 6 councilor was taken to St. John Medical Center on Thursday after he started shivering at City Hall following a morning committee meeting.
"I had the shivers - like I was freezing cold, but I wasn't cold," Steele said. "It scared me."
He said his blood pressure was elevated.
A Republican, Steele was elected in 2011.
- KEVIN CANFIELD, World Staff Writer
Owasso hires Kansan as its new finance director
OWASSO - The city has hired a longtime Wichita Public Schools employee as its new finance director.
Linda Jones will start work Monday, overseeing finance and accounting functions and utility billing. She succeeds Angela Hess, who left in August, city spokeswoman Chelsea Levo said.
Jones has more than 25 years of experience in finance and accounting, most recently as the chief financial officer for the Wichita, Kan., school district.
- RHETT MORGAN, World Staff Writer
Quapaw woman handed life term in toddler's death
MIAMI - An Ottawa County woman was sentenced Friday to life in prison in the death of a 17-month-old boy, a prosecutor said.
Skye Reece, 21, of Quapaw was convicted in December of the first-degree murder of Lanceton Hollenbeck.
Reece was living with Ryan Nowlin, Lanceton's father, at the time of the toddler's Feb. 12 death. Lanceton was at his father's house for a weekend visit.
District Attorney Eddie Wyant said Reece must serve at least 38 years in prison before she can be eligible for parole.
The toddler died of blunt trauma, an autopsy showed. A 4 1/2-inch fracture was found on the left side of his head, a report showed.
- SHEILA STOGSDILL, World Correspondent
Associated Images:
Beard
Tennial
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