Michael Morris
(PCSD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — For the second time in a year, a rural Stillwater man has been charged with choking and beating his girlfriend, who said she was afraid he would kill her, according to court records.
Michael Dewayne Morris, 43, remains jailed on $25,000 bond pending a Jan. 5 court appearance on his new charges.
If convicted of choking and beating his girlfriend on Dec. 2, 2025, after pleading guilty on Sept. 17, 2024, to similar crimes for which he was ordered into Payne County Drug Court pending his sentencing at a later date, Morris could be given 14 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
His girlfriend told sheriff’s deputies who came to her rural Stillwater residence at 2:57 pm on Dec. 2, “she just wants Michael to stop beating her and that she didn’t deserve to be beaten all the time. We told her that she doesn’t deserve to be beaten, and that Michael shouldn’t be beating or abusing her.
“She said that Michael had hit her the day previous as well. She advised us that Michael was supposed to turn himself into the Payne County Jail for a Drug Court sanction, but he didn’t want to,” Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Phil Shiplett alleged in an affidavit.
When three deputies arrived, she was “sitting in front of her house in a white chair, crying and noticeably shaken with blood on her mouth, shirt and hands. She expressed that her boyfriend, the suspect Michael Morris, had beaten her and she wanted him gone. We asked where Michael was located, and she said he was in the house.
“We asked Michael to come to the entry area for us. I noticed he had blood on his right hand, left arm, shoulder and on his mouth. We asked Michael if he had been drinking alcohol and he advised that he had a few shots. As we asked Michael what had happened, he stated he didn’t know what had happened or why we were there.
“Deputy Kramer asked Michael why (she) would have called the Payne County Dispatch 911, and Michael said he didn’t know anything about that. Deputy Kramer and Deputy Bowen secured Michael with some resistance in my patrol vehicle. Deputy Kramer advised Michael that he was under arrest for domestic assault and battery by strangulation,” the affidavit alleged.
The victim had a mark on the left side of her neck along with marks on the front of her neck and chest area, as well as a black eye, bruised right ear, blood around her mouth and defensive wounds on her hands, the affidavit said.
She said “the black eye was from an incident the day prior when Michael got mad at her and hit her. She commented that when you start purchasing makeup to cover black eyes, there must be a problem…She stated that she was afraid that Michael was going to kill her. She said she had given him chance after chance. She expressed that Michael had choked, smacked and hit her in the past.
“Deputy Kramer and Deputy Bowen asked her what had happened today (Dec. 2), and she explained that after being choked she couldn’t remember what had happened after that. She told us she was talking to her counselor on the iPad, and Michael got mad because she was telling her problems to her counselor and not confiding in Michael, and then he started choking and hitting her,” the affidavit alleged.
A year earlier, Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Jones had been sent to her residence at 10:02 pm on July 14, 2024, on an assault report, his affidavit said. She was sitting on the front porch when she reported that the previous day, “Morris put her in a rear naked choke,” the affidavit alleged.
She said that the day before that, “he punched her in the eye,” the affidavit alleged. She “advised Morris is very physically violent to her, and she is very fearful that Morris will kill her,” the affidavit alleged. After Morris was arrested, she told the deputy she had a recording that he needed to hear, the affidavit said.
“On the (eight-minute) recording, I (Deputy Jones) heard the following statement from Morris starting at the six-second mark: ‘If you come at me sideways one more time, I’m gonna stomp your f…… head into the ground, and you will die a miserable f…… death. You gonna die a death that I will stomp you f…… head into the ground, and I’m gonna sit here, and I’m gonna do a pow wow like Indian dance on your f…… skull in the ground,"” the affidavit alleged.
