By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County jury composed of eight men and four women deliberated about two hours before convicting a Stillwater man of repeatedly sexually abusing three young children at their rural Glencoe home and recommending the maximum penalty of three life prison sentences plus three $5,000 fines.
Michael Phillip Kurtanic, 37, who has been in custody since his arrest on Oct. 25, 2019, remains in the Payne County Jail pending his sentencing on May 4 before Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler. Kurtanic was also convicted of beating the younger boy, for which jurors recommended a five-year prison term plus a $1,000 fine.
“The two boys and their sister all testified in court and their forensic interviews were also shown,” during the trial, according to Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Erica Garuccio.
Kurtanic testified and defense attorney Royce Hobbs “chose to show the jury his four-hour custodial interrogation, as well,” Vincent told KUSH.
Kurtanic was found guilty of committing forcible oral sodomy and lewd acts with the younger boy when he was eight and nine, court records show.
Kurtanic was found guilty of committing forcible oral sodomy and lewd acts with the older boy when he was 11 and 12, court records show.
Kurtanic was found guilty of committing forcible oral sodomy, vaginal intercourse and lewd acts with the boys’ sister when she was six and seven, court records show.
Kurtanic was found guilty of kicking the younger boy in the genitals and stomach, strangling him, punching and slapping him in the face, and throwing him across the room into a wall when he was eight and nine, court records show.
All of the abuse occurred between April 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019, while Kurtanic was living at the family’s rural residence, court records show.
Kurtanic began living with the family in the middle of 2017 and moved from their home in June of 2019, Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Rockford Brown wrote in an affidavit.
The younger boy was forensically interviewed at the Saville Center in Stillwater on Oct. 25, 2019, the affidavit said. “Kurtanic told (the boy) that he would take him away and shoot him if (the boy) ever told anyone about the abuse,” the affidavit said.
The older boy was interviewed at the Saville Center in Stillwater on Oct. 25, 2019, the affidavit said. “Kurtanic would make the child perform oral sex on him on nearly a daily basis for several months,” the affidavit said. “Kurtanic would threaten to beat (that boy) if the child did not comply,” the affidavit said.
At the close of the four-day trial last week, the judge ordered a pre-sentencing investigation of Kurtanic, court records show.
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