By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater teenager, who was originally scheduled to have a jury trial this week on a first-degree murder charge, has pleaded guilty to a negotiated lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter in the 2019 fatal shooting of the boyfriend of a woman he regarded as his mother, prosecutor Kevin Etherington told KUSH.
Coryon Lauray Maryell Thomas, now 19, was 17 when he was charged as an adult with killing Mandrale Alexander Henry, 26, who was shot once in the right side of his back with a 20 gauge shotgun in the family home after the couple had a loud argument, according to preliminary hearing testimony.
Thomas remains held without bail pending a 3 pm May 18 sentencing hearing before Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler, who ordered a background report of Thomas. First-degree manslaughter carries a minimum sentence of four years in prison.
The victim’s girlfriend, Brittany Gentzler, testified in the 2020 hearing, “Cory was standing in my hallway. I could only see the barrel,” before the shooting at about 4:15 am on Nov. 10, 2019. When she heard the shot, “I yelled what the f…. are you doing, Cory.’ I said ‘what is wrong with you,"” she testified.
She said she did not know why the teenager shot her boyfriend, who had moved back in the house three months earlier where the defendant also lived.
“I called 911. I was literally running in circles and screaming. He was still breathing,” as the operator was telling her how to do CPR, she testified.
Her boyfriend, with whom she had an on and off relationship, died after being transported to the Stillwater Medical Center, police said.
The victim’s girlfriend said she had gotten upset when she saw messages on his cell phone: “My feelings were hurt. I was crying.”
She said she considered the 17-year-old, who helped with the couple’s baby, as one of her children; she said that the teen’s father was her ex-boyfriend with whom she had another child.
Asked by defense attorney Virginia Banks if she would be surprised to know her children said the couple had a violent relationship and that he punched a hole in the wall several months earlier, she said, “Mandrale has never touched me.”
About 9 pm the night before the slaying, “(Coryon) Thomas went to sleep in the living room after smoking three bowls of marijuana. Thomas said he smokes every night before he goes to sleep,” the teen told police, according to an affidavit by Stillwater Police Officer Kyle Bruce.
After waking up to noise of a fight, “Thomas said his siblings were yelling for help. Thomas immediately went to the garage to retrieve a shotgun because he was concerned for his mother’s safety. The shotgun was stored on the floor under a disabled van parked in the garage.
“Once the gun was retrieved, he sat inside the vehicle where the shells for the shotgun were stored and loaded the gun with four rounds,” the teen told police, the affidavit said.
As he was sitting in the vehicle, the woman he considered as his mother ran in the garage and yelled to help her, the teen told police, the affidavit alleged.
The teen ran back inside to the bedroom where the victim was kneeling on the floor and the woman was standing against the wall, he told police, the affidavit alleged.
“He pointed the shotgun towards Henry yelling ‘stop,"” the teen told police, the affidavit alleged.
“Thomas described Henry as kneeling with his right hand under the bed and his ribcage area exposed to Thomas,” who shot him, the affidavit alleged.
“Thomas stood at the door to see if Henry would respond in an aggressive manner. Thomas took the shotgun outside to keep it from the children, and then returned to assist Gentzler provide aid,” he told police, the affidavit alleged.
“Thomas told us he knew Henry had guns and did not know if he had a pistol hidden under the bed. Henry had told Thomas about a gun he kept in his car, but did not know if he had other guns,” the police affidavit alleged.
“Thomas said he had heard from his siblings Henry had physically assaulted Gentzler in the past, but he had never been a witness to any physical altercations between the two,” and had never been attacked by him, the affidavit alleged.
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