Creek County Sheriff Steve Toliver and Chief Deputy Michael O'Keefe presented the Criminal Justice program at Central Technology Center with a special recognition certificate October 19th in appreciation of the assistance given the sheriff's department some three years ago.
Instructor Mark American Horse and his students at the Sapulpa campus were recognized for their role in locating a discarded weapon that had been used in a brutal double-slaying in March 2002.
O'Keefe described what he called “probably the most grizzly homicide of my career” when he told of the killing of Earl Kirkwood Sr. and Karen Strange who were bludgeoned to death with the butt of a shotgun on March 28, 2002. The case against three suspects in the killing only recently came to conclusion with Mitchell Coleman, Leslie Dobbs and Eddie Simmons all being convicted and receiving prison sentences of life without possibility of parole.
Deputy O'Keefe told of how the authorities had looked for six weeks for the weapon that had been used in the killings, to no avail. When American Horse was approached about having his Criminal Justice students assist in the search, the instructor saw an opportunity for his students to get practical experience in their field of study.
One of the classmates found the shotgun that had been discarded in a heavy brush during the student's first hour of searching. O'Keefe says the Central Tech student's find of the killer's weapon was critical to the successful prosecution and conclusion of the case against Coleman, Dobbs and Simmons. The Sheriff's office was unable to give earlier public recognition to the technology students without possible detriment to the trail proceedings. |
