Michael Bigheart
(SPD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 42-year-old man, who had previously lived in Stillwater and Pawhuska, has been charged with first-degree murder, or in the alternative first-degree manslaughter, in the fatal stabbing of his sister’s boyfriend at 810 S. Jardot in Stillwater on April 14.
The victim, Justin Shane Springer, 35, “had seven stab wounds, which pierced a lung, kidney, liver, aorta, colon, stomach, diaphragm, and a through-and-through stab wound to the left wrist,” that caused a great deal of damage and blood loss, Stillwater Police Detective John Paul Johnson wrote in an affidavit.
The suspect, Michael Angus Bigheart, whose home address was unknown, was arrested in Skiatook on April 21 and transported to the Payne County Jail where he was ordered held without bail pending a May 2 court appearance.
Stillwater police had been called at 12:08 am on April 15 on a report of an unresponsive male with multiple stab wounds, an affidavit said.
“Officers arrived and found a Native American male lying on the grass outside trailer house #13,” who was pronounced dead by ambulance personnel, the affidavit said.
The victim’s girlfriend, who lives at the residence, was on scene, as well as 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 also having been at the residence, but they were not there when police arrived and never returned, the affidavit alleged.
“Bigheart was determined to have been staying at this residence for the past week with his sister,” the affidavit alleged.
The victim, his girlfriend, Bigheart and another woman had met at George’s Stables bar shortly after 6 pm on April 14; “While there, they drank about two pitchers of beer and several shots of liquor combined,” and left before 9 pm, the affidavit alleged. When they returned to the residence, “the four continued to drink beer and liquor,” the affidavit alleged.
The fatal stabbing occurred following an argument between the victim and his girlfriend, who is the defendant’s sister, the affidavit alleged.
The victim punched through the back window of his girlfriend’s vehicle causing it to completely shatter, the affidavit alleged.
The victim grabbed his girlfriend by the hair and shoved her head down so much that she had to go to her knees, and he went to his knees as well, the affidavit alleged.
The victim was holding his girlfriend’s head down and punching her in the right side of her face, the affidavit alleged.
She said that when she got up off the ground, she saw her boyfriend rise from crouching forward with a lot of blood on him, the affidavit alleged.
The victim’s girlfriend said she ran to him and grabbed him, but he told her to get off him and that he had just been stabbed. She then saw him stumble back and fall backward. She was surprised to earn that Bigheart was not on the scene when officers arrived, the affidavit alleged.
In phone calls made by the victim’s girlfriend from the Stillwater Police Department later that day, police learned “that Bigheart called one of his other sisters, who lives in the Skiatook area. He asked her to come to Stillwater and pick him up that morning,” the affidavit alleged.
“We learned that this sister picked him up at about 7 am somewhere along Airport Road. Skiatook is an approximate one hour and 20-minute drive to Stillwater,” the detective alleged in his affidavit.
The victim’s girlfriend and her 17-year-old daughter believe that Bigheart committed the stabbing, the affidavit alleged. “At no time did anyone say that the victim, Springer, was armed with any type of weapon before or during the incident,” the affidavit said.
The victim’s girlfriend “also 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 that 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.
