By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — Three Stillwater men, who have admitted their roles in a gruesome killing in which a former Cushing man was repeatedly beaten and stabbed before his corpse was set on fire, have been sentenced to prison by District Judge Phillip Corley.
The victim, Michael Dwayne Hamilton, 38, of Stillwater, who previously lived in Cushing, was identified by his tattoos on his badly burnt body, authorities said.
All three admitted killers, as well as the victim, have methamphetamine-related convictions and previously served prison terms, state Department of Corrections records show.
The oldest of the trio, former Cushing resident Anthony Wayne Endrina, 52, avoided a jury trial last week on a first-degree murder charge by accepting a plea bargain on a reduced charge of second-degree murder, for which he was given a 12-year prison term followed by 10 years of probation, with a concurrent seven-year prison term for desecrating a corpse.
His distant relative, former Cushing resident Gary Allen Schaffner Jr, 47, who called Endrina “uncle,” also accepted a plea bargain on a reduced charge of second-degree murder for which he was given a 15-year prison term followed by 10 years of probation, with a concurrent seven-year prison term for desecrating a corpse.
Endrina and Schaffner, who have been held in the Payne County Jail since the 2017 slaying, were given credit for the four and one-half years they have been in custody. None of the victim’s relatives were in court on Sept. 10 when Endrina and Schaffner were ordered to pay $3,024 restitution for the victim’s funeral expenses.
A third defendant, Gregory Gavin Guard, 43, who has been held in the Logan County Jail, pleaded guilty last year to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter and desecration of a corpse. Guard was sentenced Friday in Logan County to a 10-year prison term for manslaughter, with a concurrent three-year prison term for desecrating a corpse.
District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas told KUSH that Guard was “the only one we think would be entitled to a possible self-defense instruction,” if he had a jury trial.
Guard’s girlfriend, Storm Burnett Fields, 31, of Ponca City, who then lived in the Stillwater house where the slaying occurred, has been charged as an accessory for allegedly helping clean the homicide scene and dispose of evidence. She remains free on $5,000 bail and has been scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 8.
During a preliminary hearing in the March 28, 2017, slaying, Stillwater Police Chief Jeff Watts, who was then a detective lieutenant, testified that when he interviewed Schaffner three days after the killing, “I suggested it (Hamilton’s slaying) was related to a drug transaction between Anthony Endrina and Michael Hamilton.”
The district attorney said in a news release, “We are satisfied by the final outcome in this case,” in which presenting the full facts to a jury would have been especially difficult.
“All three (homicide) defendants, the victim, and every civilian witness have prior criminal histories including extensive illegal drug involvement. Those criminal histories would have been relevant to a jury. Each defendant’s statement, as to what they and their co-defendants did, is not admissible against the other defendants.
“Lay witnesses were hesitant to testify, and the success of the case was dependent upon the defendant’s statements. Given those obstacles, we are satisfied we are removing these defendants from society for significant periods of time.
“The case was able to be successfully prosecuted by the investigation of the Stillwater Police Department and the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation.”
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