By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County jury has recommended a life prison term for a 26-year-old Drumright man convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for causing a double-fatality crash west of Yale on the day before Thanksgiving in 2019 — by failing to stop at the stop sign on Norfolk Road at State Highway 51 while eluding police.
Tommy Leroy McClendon Jr. remains held without bail in the Payne County Jail pending his Feb. 25 sentencing before District Judge Phillip Corley, who presided at his trial that began with jury selection on Jan. 10 and ended on Jan. 18.
After the trial, First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Etherington told KUSH, “This case is an example of the devastating consequences that result when a driver decides to run from police. The evidence showed that while attempting to elude Yale Police Chief Phillip Kelly, McClendon made a decision to try and beat the car crossing in front of him on Hwy. 51. In a split second, that decision resulted in the death of two innocent people and severely injured two others.”
Regarding the murder I conviction and recommendation of a life prison term, prosecutor Etherington told KUSH, “The state is satisfied with the decisions made by the jury, and it is our hope that others will think twice before risking the lives of others by running from police.”
McClendon “admitted to recent drug use prior to the collision occurring,” according to an affidavit by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Traffic Homicide Investigator Shayne Ballard.
McClendon, who was driving a stolen vehicle on a revoked driver’s license, admitted that he saw Yale Police Chief Phillip Kelly “attempt to initiate a traffic stop by activating the emergency lights, and McClendon stated he accelerated as fast as he could go in attempt to flee.
“The Toyota Tundra driven by McClendon accelerated at an extremely high rate of speed northbound on Norfolk Road and struck a 2019 Honda Passport that was traveling westbound on State Highway 51,” the affidavit said.
The Honda driver, Michelle Renea Clary, 55, of Stillwater, was transported by Life Net to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa in critical condition with multiple injuries, the investigator wrote in a report. Two Honda passengers, Floyd Margason Jr., 77, of Stillwater, who was ejected, and Shelayna Renea Knott, 28, of Orlando, died at the scene of massive injuries, the report said. A 4-year-old Honda passenger from Orlando was transported by Life Net to the Cushing hospital and released after treatment, the report said.
McClendon was not injured; his passenger, Elexis Taber, 18, of Drumright, who was ejected, was transported by Air Evac to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa in critical condition with multiple injuries, the report said.
The jury of six women and six men deliberated for about two and one-half hours including rewatching the defendant’s 45-minute interview before convicting McClendon, the prosecutor said. The jury took only about 50 more minutes to recommend a life prison term for McClendon, who had been convicted in 2018 of attempting to elude Cushing police and possessing a stolen truck in 2018, for which he had been given one year in jail followed by four years of probation.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Jose Villareal told jurors, “When the defendant crashed into them, he did not care. He took off running into the woods until several hours later when it got dark and cold.”
Prosecutor Kevin Etherington emphasized to the jury, “He hit that car with such force that it broke the pole. The defendant told you he was doing two and one-half grams of meth a day and he was going to get more meth.”
McClendon’s court-appointed defense attorney Royce Hobbs said in his closing argument, “You as the jury have to decide what level of homicide this is — murder I, murder II or manslaughter I. What happened was tragic. The date of that death is irrelevant to your deliberations. That may be heartless to some of you, but that’s the law you swore to apply. There is no evidence of intoxication. The most, that this evidence warrants, is manslaughter I.”
