Jurisdictional dispute delays hearing in Pawhuska slaying

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has halted proceedings in a criminal case against two brothers accused in the 2015 slaying of a Pawhuska oilman, further extending a contentious battle over jurisdiction.

The court issued an order Wednesday staying an upcoming preliminary hearing for Jeremy Reece and Tyler Reece after the defendants’ attorneys appealed a judge’s decision to proceed with prosecution in state court.

The Reece brothers have remained jailed in Osage County since their arrests in the shooting death of Rick Holt during an apparent burglary and kidnapping at his home in September 2015.

The body of Holt, 46, was found burned and with multiple gunshot wounds in a shallow grave on private property outside Pawhuska less than a week after he was reported missing.

State prosecutors have fought to try the brothers for murder since Osage County District Judge Stuart Tate first ruled to dismiss the case because the homicide appeared to have occurred on tribal land and both defendants are tribal members.

Meanwhile, defense attorneys maintained the case should be handled only by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which declined to take action, or tribal court, which carries a maximum murder sentence of one year.

The state appealed to District Judge Terry McBride, who sustained Tate’s ruling but suggested prosecutors refile the charge of firstdegree murder as felony murder. Oklahoma’s felony murder rule defines murder as an act that resulted from the commission of a felony.