Tyler Forest Ryba
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 27-year-old Stillwater man, who admitted he was drunk driving when he killed a Stillwater woman in a head-on collision on Highway 33 east of Perkins, has been given a 10-year prison term for second-degree murder.
In an emotional sentencing hearing two days before Thanksgiving that the defense tried to delay, Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler told Tyler Forest Ryba, “You entered a blind plea of guilty,” to causing the death of Cimarron Correctional Facility Captain Karen Nelson while she was driving to work in Cushing on May 23, 2018.
The judge emphasized to Ryba, “You were leaving your sentence totally up to me. There was no plea deal at the time,” when he admitted his guilt three months ago to causing the fatal collision while drunk driving after a prior DUI.
“This is murder, a violent crime. With a great deal of hesitation, I will sentence in accordance to the recommendation of the state,” the judge said.
The judge told Ryba, who had a history of drug arrests in Payne and Pawnee counties when he lived in Glencoe, that he would be given a substance abuse assessment and treatment in prison. “The law requires you register as a violent offender for 10 years after you complete your sentence.”
Before announcing Ryba’s penalty, the judge listened intently to the victim’s husband, James Nelson, who read his victim impact statement in court.
“When she died on May 23, 2018, my wife was 59 years old. Karen was the wife of a former soldier. She would get up in the middle of the night and help her husband wash the blood off his hands that no one else could see.
“Karen was the mother of three children. Karen was the daughter to Terry and Jenny Adshead. Jenny long since passed away. Terry, upon finding out his only daughter had been killed, simply gave up. He followed Karen on Christmas Eve the same year she was killed. It was his wedding anniversary.
“As I type this statement it has been 1,150 days since me and my son drove up on the crash site. I know how many days it is because when I wake up every morning I tell myself ‘It’s been X days, you can do this.’ It has yet to get any easier.
“We met on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we got married on New Year’s Eve. We were married for 25 years. Longer than Mr. Ryba was alive when she died.
“I dread sleeping because of dreams of her, then I wake up and she’s still gone. I moved because I could not stand to be in the house without her. In the more than three years I have managed to put up a total of one picture of her. And that was almost more than I could bear.
“I think of something and I turn to talk to her, and she’s not there. I wake up, and she’s not there. My sisters make me take a vacation, and she’s not there. I go see my best friend and she’s not there.
“I sit down to dinner, and she’s not there. I go to bed, and she’s not there. I live in a house that is silent, because she’s not there. It’s not a home. Because she’s not there. All I know, every moment of every day, is that she is not there.”
After the victim’s husband thanked the judge for allowing him to read his victim impact statement, defense attorney Cheryl Ramsey, who had tried unsuccessfully to withdraw from the case, asked the judge for a recess.
When court resumed, the judge asked Ryba if he wanted to say anything before he was sentenced.
Looking at the judge rather than the victim’s family, Ryba said, “I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for the family, the loss. I ask for forgiveness. I’m sorry.”
In a pre-sentencing investigation, Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Officer Clinton Moore had recommended that Ryba be given the maximum penalty for second-degree murder, which is life in prison.
“The defendant’s drugs of choice are alcohol and methamphetamine…The defendant is currently unemployed and has been unemployed since 2018. His income currently consists of his wife and stepsons’ SSI disability checks,” the probation and parole officer noted in his report to the court.
The victim had been pronounced dead at the scene of the 4:59 am May 23, 2018, collision on Highway 33, about 350 feet east of Fairgrounds Road, two miles east of Perkins, according to a preliminary report from the Department of Public Safety.
Ryba was pinned for 20 to 25 minutes in his vehicle before being freed by the Perkins Fire Department and then transported by medical helicopter to a trauma center in Oklahoma City, the report said.
Ryba was driving a 2010 Chevrolet Impala west on Highway 33, while the victim was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Sonic east on Highway 33 when the collision occurred in the eastbound lane, the report said.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Colby Martens learned from a medical professional with LifeNet EMS that “he noticed the odor of alcohol coming from Ryba and that Ryba admitted to drinking,” OHP Trooper Matthew Ledbetter, who is a traffic homicide investigator, wrote in an affidavit
“Ryba informed (OHP Trooper Eric) Blades that he had been at a friend’s house in Cushing throughout the night and that he had consumed alcohol during that time,” the affidavit said.
“Ryba failed to remain in his lane and crossed the centerline in a no-passing zone when he struck the Chevrolet Sonic killing Karen Nelson,” the affidavit said.
According to court records, three years earlier Ryba had been charged with possessing methamphetamine and driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance on Highway 51 west of Council Valley Road on July 28, 2015. Ryba pleaded guilty to his felony drug charge and was placed on five years’ probation under a deferred sentence with an order to comply with the methamphetamine registry and undergo random drug tests. For his misdemeanor DUI count to which he pleaded guilty, Ryba was given a one-year suspended sentence.
In 2014 Ryba and two Stillwater men were charged as co-defendants with the misdemeanor of reckless conduct on Nov. 29, 2013, for while hunting without a license at night, discharging a firearm in the direction of a rural Stillwater woman’s home — where the bullet went through the window and landed on her bedroom floor while she was home, court records show.
Ryba and his co-defendants were also charged with misdemeanor counts of using a truck’s headlights to spot a whitetail deer with intent to aid in killing the deer, possessing a whitetail deer not legally taken, and hunting without a valid license. Ryba pleaded guilty to all four counts and was placed on probation under deferred sentences for terms from 30 days to six months, court records show.
Also in 2014, Ryba was charged in Pawnee County with possessing a drug and paraphernalia, along with attempting to elude a Pawnee police officer. Ryba pleaded guilty to the three-count misdemeanor charge and was placed on probation for one year in 2014, court records show.
