Man accused in fatal shooting threatened girlfriend

SHAWNEE — A murder defendant threatened to kill his girlfriend the same night he fatally shot a Tecumseh police officer, according to text messages read to a jury Thursday.

“I will put one between your ( expletive) eyes,” Byron Shepard stated in a text read by a police investigator. “You're lucky I love (your son) or I'd kill your (expletive) ass.”

The messages were recovered from mobile phones belonging to Shepard and Brooklyn Williams.

Shepard, 28, of Okemah, is charged with firstdegree murder in the death of officer Justin Terney. The defendant is also charged with knowingly concealing a stolen handgun used in the killing and possession of methamphetamine.

Shepard was a passenger in a car being driven by Williams when the officer stopped the vehicle for a defective taillight about 11:30 p.m. on March 26, 2017. Shepard gave the officer a fake name and fled when it became apparent he was lying. A brief foot chase and shootout followed, according to police dash camera video.

Prosecutors, led by Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn, allege Shepard intended to shoot Terney and are seeking the death penalty. Mashburn contends Shepard lied to Terney about his identity because there was a warrant out for his arrest and he was determined not to return to jail.

Public defender Shea Smith has said the officer's death was “not intentional.”

The trial before Pottawatomie County District Judge John G. Canavan Jr. is expected to last several weeks.

Several text messages between Shepard and Williams — convicted of second- degree murder for her role in the killing — were put into evidence, some referencing their not wanting Shepard to go back to jail. Prosecutors said one message sent by Shepard alluded to his wanting to “take out four or five” officers.

The defendant's attorneys argued Shepard was referring to people who stole his welding truck or “were out of get him.”

Shepard sent the threatening messages to Williams about three to four hours before the shooting

Also Thursday, Shepard was heard on body camera footage played for jurors apologizing to a paramedic as she treated him on the way to a hospital.

Shepard was shot four times during the shootout with Terney, who was shot in the leg and abdomen and died at OU Medical Center the next day.

“I'm sorry, you guys,” Shepard told the paramedic and a Seminole police officer assisting her.

The officer's body camera captured the exchange inside an ambulance.

“You don't need to be sorry to me, you need to be sorry to the officer,” the paramedic replied, referring to Terney.

Seminole police officer Jamie Breedlove told jurors he recovered a glass pipe and a substance he identified as methamphetamine from jeans worn by Shepard that were cut off in the ambulance.

In Breedlove's body camera footage, Shepard is heard giving the paramedic his real name. Shepard previously told Terney his name was James Bishop.