Deputy's killer avoids death sentence
GUTHRIE—Ash is life slipped away, the wounded Logan County sheriff' s deputy radioed for help, gave a description of the shooter and asked — twice — that his wife and kids be told he loved them.
“Oh God, this hurts. Oh God, this hurts,” the deputy said, his vision blurring and his mouth filling with blood. “Come on, guys, hurry.”
“Deputy David Wade died in service to you,” District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas told jurors Thursday in asking for the death penalty for his murderer, Nathan LeForce. “Let the punishment fit the crime.”
The deputy had been making sure an evicted couple was moving out of a rural residence near Mulhall on April 18, 2017, when LeForce — who was visiting there — pulled out a gun
from a piece of furniture and began firing.
The first shot hit the deputy in the vest, spinning him around and knocking him to the ground. LeForce moved closer, shooting the deputy in the arm, armpit, back and, finally, the mouth, according to evidence presented at the trial. LeForce fled in the deputy's patrol truck.
Calling the shooting coldblooded, wicked and vile, the district attorney asked jurors if it did not merit the death penalty than what does. To choose another punishment, she said, would not honor or value the deputy's service.
Jurors, though, struggled with the decision. After four hours, the fore man told District Judge Phillip Corley they were split 10-2. The judge instructed them to deliberate further. He told jurors he would decide the sentence if they couldn't agree but explained his options could not include death.
About 90 minutes later, jurors reported they were at an impasse, 11-1. The judge thanked them and discharged them from duty.
The deadlock is the latest example of the death penalty's decline.
Death sentences have become increasingly rare in Oklahoma and nationwide as opposition to the punishment grows. In May, New Hampshire became the 21st state to abolish the death penalty. Last week, the Ohio House speaker told reporters he's become “less and less supportive” of the death penalty.
“It's just becoming more and more difficult to do and it's more and more expensive,” Speaker Larry Householder said.
Nationwide, a death sentence was imposed only 42 times last year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
In Oklahoma, only one death sentence was imposed last year and only one has been imposed so far this year. Executions remain on hold in the state while officials develop a protocol to use nitrogen gas. The last lethal injection in Oklahoma murderer was on Jan. 15, 2015.
The deadlock Thursday night angered relatives of the victim and upset the sheriff and the almost two dozen deputies in the courtroom. It frustrated prosecutors, who believe the majority of jurors favored death.
“We do not understand how the vicious, intentional murder of a law enforcement officer does not warrant the death penalty,” Wade's cousin, Jamie Alexander, said in tears. “To some people, the decision to give the death penalty is not a valid choice. Our family respects the conviction of those who are opposed to it, but we have always held firm that there are crimes that are simply so egregious in nature as to warrant no less. We felt that was the situation in this case.
“The undeniable truth is that David's death was cruel and completely unnecessary. He was murdered by an individual acting out of hatred. David was targeted simply because he wore the uniform of a law enforcement officer and for no other reason.”
Sheriff Damon Devereaux said, “It's a sad day.”
The district attorney said she wishes only judges decided punishment in criminal cases in Oklahoma.
“Jurors tell you they can follow the law and they can consider the law and some simply don't and won't,” Thomas said. “Many states, many states have the concept of jurors determining only the guilt or innocence, which they seem to have no problem with ... but those states also put the judge in the position to determine the sentence. ... It only makes sense.”
After jurors left Thursday night, the judge quickly sentenced Le Force to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jurors last week found LeForce, 47, guilty of firstdegree murder, larceny of a motor vehicle and armed robbery.
Prosecutors put on evidence during the trial that LeForce had a history of violent confrontations with police i n Perry where he l i ved, had talked of shooting it out with officers and had expressed in jail he was proud of what he had done. Prosecutors also put on evidence he was a drug dealer and involved with gangs.
Prosecutors showed jurors a video from the deputy's body camera of the shooting.
Prosecutors also put on evidence that he took at gunpoint a convenience store customer's car after abandoning the deputy's truck. “I'm sorry,” he mouthed to the customer, Charnae Bottley, after she testified Aug. 13.
Defense attorneys put on evidence that LeForce has expressed remorse about the shooting, that he loves his children and that he has found God in jail. They also put on evidence that he was a methamphetamine user. They blamed his actions in 2017 on a meth-induced psychosis and told jurors he wants now to minister to others.
“Nathan has surrendered to Christ,” defense attorney Gretchen Mosley told jurors. “He is growing in his faith every day.
“We're grateful for mercy,” Mosley told reporters after jurors deadlocked. “We pray for healing for the Wade family and the Logan County community and all of the officers. We really believe that Nathan will try to redeem himself and use his life for good.”