Michael Bigheart
(SPD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — Due to conflicting witness statements, a first-degree manslaughter charge has been dropped by the prosecution against a 43-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing his sister’s boyfriend outside her residence in Stillwater on April 14, 2023, court records show.
The suspect, Michael Angus Bigheart, who previously lived in Stillwater and Pawhuska, was arrested in Skiatook a week after the slaying and transported to the Payne County Jail where he was held until his release last week, court records show.
The victim, Justin Shane Springer, 35, “had seven stab sounds, which pierced a lung, kidney, liver, aorta, colon, stomach, diaphragm, and a through-and-through stab wound to the left wrist,” according to an affidavit by Stillwater Police Detective John Paul Johnson.
In seeking dismissal of the case that was granted by Associate District Judge Michael Kulling last week, Payne County Assistant District Attorney J.R. Kalka wrote in a motion, “The continued investigation into this matter has produced conflicting and contradictory statements made by the multiple admitted and suspected eyewitnesses.
“Continued investigation into this matter subsequent to the preliminary hearing has failed to yield sufficient reliable and corroborating evidence to enable the state to proceed with the prosecution of this matter at this time. The investigation into this event continues to be open and ongoing.”
Stillwater police had been called at 12:08 am on April 15, 2023, on a report of an unresponsive male with multiple stab wounds, who was pronounced dead by ambulance personnel outside a trailer house in the 800 block of S. Jardot, an affidavit said.
The victim’s girlfriend, who was living there, was on scene along with her 17-year-old daughter, her five-month-old grandchild, and her 10-year-old child, the affidavit said. Later, officers identified Bigheart and another woman as having been there, but they were gone when police arrived, the affidavit alleged.
The fatal stabbing occurred following an argument between the victim and his girlfriend, who is Bigheart’s sister, the affidavit alleged.
The victim’s girlfriend “described an incident about seven years ago when Bigheart pulled a knife on Springer during an altercation” between Springer and her, the affidavit alleged.
She said she told Springer “early in their relationship that Bigheart would pull a knife on someone during an altercation and even taught Springer to wrap his shirt around his arm to block a knife attack,” the affidavit alleged.
“Bigheart has a criminal history with a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon (knife) in 2004 in Washington County, Oklahoma,” the affidavit said.
