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Updated: 10:41 PM Feb 23, 2010
Garvin Co. grand jury hands down one indictment; petitioners dismayed
GARVIN COUNTY, OKLA – A six-month long grand jury investigation ends with one arrest Tuesday. But it's not the result that those who spent weeks petitioning for the grand jury wanted. They tell us they don't believe justice has been served at all. Shelby Levins reports.
Posted: 10:26 PM Feb 23, 2010Reporter: Shelby Levins Email Address: shelby.levins@kxii.com |
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GARVIN COUNTY, OKLA – A six-month long grand jury investigation ends with one arrest Tuesday. But it's not the result that those who spent weeks petitioning for the grand jury wanted. They tell us they don't believe justice has been served at all. Shelby Levins reports.
The grand jury's sole indictment was unsealed Tuesday. One man arrested and now facing drug charges. The result came to the complete dismay of the people who worked to impanel the grand jury, with the purpose of investigating the shooting death of well-know Wynnewood resident Tom Horton.
The district judge read the indictment against Andrew Jack Atkins for two drug charges. But friends and family of Tom Horton, who worked to seat the grand jury, say this is a far cry from the justice they were hoping the grand jury would hand down.
"This one was a sham. The DA used this as a clearing house and they overlooked four people who died. It's just unconscionable,” original petitioner Shannon Kile explained.
But Assistant District Attorney George Burnett who helped oversee the grand jury process, says he was simply a facilitator, and it was up to the grand jurors to decide what cases they looked into.
"That's why they're call grand juries - they have the power to look at any offense they believe to be committed,” Burnett said.
However Susan Deviney says the grand jury didn't give her daughter's case any serious consideration. Devinney says her daughter was murdered and set on fire. She wears an etching of her daughter’s picture around her neck.
"I feel like the grand jury was petitioned by the people for the people and I think the state used it for their case,” Deviney said.
Grand jury foreman Kirk Dunham says the jury declined to investigate cases like the death of Deviney's daughter because there was no new evidence.
"We didn't feel like we'd be doing anyone justice, by just basically spending more time looking at something that had already been decided upon,” Dunham said.
As for the original shooting death of Mr. Horton, that the grand jury was impaneled to investigate, they ruled Horton's death a suicide.
But petitioners like Kile maintain the grand jury didn't look at all the evidence brought forward, and say they'll continue to fight for what they believe is justice.
"We have to live with it, but we don't have to like it and we don't have to accept it. One day under some other circumstance Mr. Horton will get his say.” Kile said.
According to the final report, the grand jury reviewed 75 pieces of evidence and heard testimony from 46 witnesses.
In addition to the indictment of Andrew Atkins, the grand jury recommends the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation be called in to investigation any future unattended deaths involving violence in Garvin County.
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