(Stillwater, Okla.) – A 98-year-old man has been ordered to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge in the shotgun slaying of his 30-year-old great-granddaughter on Dec. 5, 2013, at his then-residence in rural Cushing.
Due to his medical condition, Russell Eugene Dawes, who now lives with his daughter in Tennessee, did not appear in Payne County District Court on Friday, but instead waived his right to a preliminary hearing by closed circuit, court records show.
Dawes was held without bail in the Payne County Jail for more than four months until he was released on April 22, 2014, after posting $25,000 cash bond and being fitted with a leg monitor provided by the sheriff’s office at Dawes’ expense, court records show.
“The Payne County Sheriff’s Office is aware of Mr. Dawes’ whereabouts at all times,” defense attorney Cheryl Ramsey noted in a court document.
“Mr. Dawes does not leave the residence (in Tennessee) due to his health except for doctor’s appointments,” his attorney said.
Dawes’s trial court arraignment has been scheduled for July 10 in Payne County District Court before District Judge Phillip Corley.
While he was in the Payne County Jail, Dawes was “in and out of the hospital,” along with taking daily breathing treatments, Undersheriff Garry McKinnis said.
According to the undersheriff, Dawes told Cushing funeral director Rodger Floyd that the victim, Sonja Rose James, who was living with him southwest of Cushing, possibly as his caretaker, “had beaten him and he was tired of it.”
Dawes appeared to have two black eyes when he was jailed, the undersheriff said.
More than $29,000 in cash, as well as a check for $27,353.91 that was issued to Dawes by a Cushing bank on the day before the slaying, was found in the house, investigators said.
“It appears that a 410 shotgun was the murder weapon. We believe it was fired one time,”Sheriff’s Investigator Larry Kitchel said.
The victim, who was found in her bed, was struck in the chin and right cheek after being shot from less than 10 feet away, Sheriff’s Deputy George Disel said.
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