Patrick Venable, 28, is accused of raping a Guthrie woman while on duty June 20. He was ordered to stand trial after Special Judge R.L. Hert Jr. ruled April 4 that there was enough evidence presented at the preliminary hearing for Venable to face trial in district court.

His attorney, Carl Hughes, wrote in an email that Venable plans to proceed with a trial. He said he is still waiting on discovery materials from prosecutors before the case can move forward.

Another pretrial date has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Aug. 17, Hughes said.

Photo by Paul Southerland: Former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Patrick Venable talking with his attorney outside a courtroom during his preliminary hearing at the Payne County Courthouse in Stillwater Monday, Jan. 23, 2012.

The Huffington Post reports that media outlets are asking the Supreme Court to allow cameras in the courtroom to cover the decision on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

According to the report, this could be the first time cameras are allowed in the court if the request is approved.

What do you think about the request? Would you watch the live coverage?

Photo by J. Scott Applewhite: This Jan. 25, 2012 file photo shows the Supreme Court Building in Washington. 

Rebecca Bryan, 53, of Mustang, is scheduled to be arraigned on a first-degree murder charge Tuesday in district court.

She is accused of fatally shooting her husband, Keith Bryan, the Nichols Hills fire chief, in September 2011 at their Mustang home. Bryan is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and will enter a plea.

Most of the shooting details and a possible motive were kept secret until Bryan’s preliminary hearing in March. A friend of Bryan’s and a former lover testified at the hearing, divulging new details about the couple’s relationship and Rebecca Bryan’s affairs.

From our preliminary hearing story:

Her friend, Debbie Proctor, took the stand and said she was at the Bryans’ home in Mustang at 1320 Rose Hill Drive shortly before the shooting about 10 p.m. Sept. 20. She said that the couple seemed happy that night.

After the shooting, Proctor said Rebecca Bryan called her and asked her to come over.

On the way to the hospital to check on Keith Bryan, Proctor testified that Rebecca Bryan showed the people in the car a picture of another man’s penis on her phone. She testified that Bryan told them she had sex with the man, one of her real estate clients, earlier that day and felt guilty because of the shooting.

Bryan also showed them a text message she sent to a former lover about inheriting a significant amount of money soon and moving to Hugo.

The hearing was continued until April so prosecutors could question more law enforcement witnesses. After listening to testimony, a judge ordered Bryan to stand trial in the shooting death of her husband.

For more on the shooting, check out NewsOK’s Ongoing Coverage Page.

Photo by Paul Southerland: Judge Jack McCurdy, II, listens to attorney Gary James, at left, as Rebecca Bryan, right, wife of slain fire chief Keith Bryan, appears for her initial arraignment at the Canadian County Courthouse in El Reno Friday, Sept. 30, 2011.

Patrick Venable, 28, was ordered to stand trial after Special judge R.L. Hert Jr. ruled April 4 that there was enough evidence presented at the preliminary hearing for Venable to face trial in district court on a count of second-degree rape.

Court records show that Venable’s pretrial is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 15 in Logan County. At his arraignment last week, Venable pleaded not guilty to the charge.

For more on the judge’s order for Venable to stand trial, click here.

Read about the preliminary hearing and testimony here.

Photo by Paul Southerland: Former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Patrick Venable leaving a courtroom during his preliminary hearing at the Payne County Courthouse in Stillwater Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. 

Police filed a search warrant Monday for items inside a southwest Oklahoma City home where three people were found dead earlier this month.

Officers responded to shots fired at the home at 3221 S Durland Avenue shortly after midnight April 14. Witnesses told police they saw several people run from the home after the shots were fired and left in different vehicles.

Upon arrival, police found James Lumpkin, 42, dead outside the residence. Two other victims, Kayla Ramirez, 19, and Francisco Grajeda, 19, were found inside.

Arrest warrants were issued April 18 for Genaro Hernandez, 25, Luis Humberto Solis, 24, and Jesus Solis-Acosta, 26, who are all wanted in connection with the shootings.

As of Wednesday, police said the three men have not been arrested or located.

Two brothers who live in the home were also arrested on drug possession complaints and questioned in the murders April 17.

In the search warrant affidavit, officers requested permission to search the home for several items that could be evidence in the case, including knives, cutting instruments, weapons and firearms.

The following items were recovered from the home:

• Numerous rounds of live ammunition
• Spent Shell Casings
• Swabs taken from inside the residence
• Multiple cell phones
• Beer bottles
• Necklace
• Green leafy substance suspected to be marijuana
• Cigarettes, lighters
• A knife
• Semi-automatic firearm
• Digital scales with white residue and glass pipes
• An illegally sawed-off shotgun

An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent has filed a new search warrant in the case of Rebecca Bryan, a Mustang woman accused in the shooting death of her husband, Keith Bryan.

Rebecca Bryan, 52, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of her husband, the Nichols Hills fire chief, on Sept. 20 inside they Mustang home at at 1320 W Rose Hill Drive.

A judge ordered her to face trial on April 4. Bryan is scheduled to appear for arraignment May 22 in El Reno.

Agent Shawn Wright filed the warrant for a .380 Ruger LCP gun box that once belonged to the couple’s son, Kent Bryan.  Officials also requested a fired casing from the pistol, related paperwork and a receipt for the gun.

During a search of the home in September 2011, investigators found another  Ruger .380-caliber gun box underneath what appeared to be Rebecca Bryan’s side of the bed that was empty but had a receipt inside, detailing Keith Bryan’s purchase of the firearm in 2009. Investigators later found the pistol in the utility room.

Rebecca Bryan’s attorney, Gary James, said Keith Bryan also bought his son, Kent Bryan, a .380 Ruger LCP at the same time he purchased the gun for his wife.

According to the search warrant affidavit, Kent Bryan reported that his gun was stolen on April 20, 2011.  He told officers someone had entered his residence at 1053 W Churchhill Way in Mustang through a back door and stole the pistol.

Fingerprints were found on an exterior window of the house and submitted to OSBI agents. A juvenile suspect was then  identified and interviewed about his involvement in the burglary. The boy told officials he did attempt to burglarize the home but denied making entry, claiming that another juvenile stole the gun.

After Bryan’s preliminary hearing on April 4, James said a juvenile accused in the burglary was charged on Feb. 24 and could have a connection to the shooting of Keith Bryan.

Kent Bryan was interviewed on April 4 and told agents the gun box for his pistol and its paperwork was given to his uncle, who later gave the items to James.

“It has been suggested by James that the pistol that was stolen from the Kent Bryan residence was also used to shoot Keith Bryan,” Wright wrote in the affidavit.

Officials now hope to examine the fire casing and determine if the stolen pistol matches the casing recovered from the couple’s Mustang home after Keith Bryan was shot.

From the Associated Press

Gov. Mary Fallin has decided the execution will proceed for a man scheduled to die for the 1986 slaying of the mother of his two children.

Fallin on Tuesday rejected a 2005 recommendation by the state Pardon and Parole Board to commute the sentence of Garry Thomas Allen to life in prison without parole.

Allen’s attorneys argued that he was mentally impaired when he killed 42-year-old Lawanna Gail Titsworth on Nov. 21, 1986, in Oklahoma City. They say he had been self-medicating for an underlying mental illness, and that his mental condition has worsened.

A police officer shot Allen in the face during a struggle after Allen shot Titsworth.

Oklahoma has four doses remaining of a drug used to execute inmates.

The execution date has been rescheduled for April 12.

From the Associated Press

A spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin said the governor is unlikely to stay the execution of Timothy Stemple, who is scheduled to die on Thursday.

He said Tuesday that Fallin reviewed the case and said it would be “very unlikely” a stay would be granted.

The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty met with Fallin’s deputy general counsel Rebecca Frazier to plead for a stay of execution.

Coalition co-chair Lydia Polley said Stemple’s family has compiled evidence that was never presented in court.

Stemple was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of his 30-year-old wife, Trisha Stemple, who was beaten with a baseball bat and run over with a pickup truck in Tulsa.

The McAlester News-Capital reports:

Leslie D. Wolfenbarger Sr., age 62, faced a jury Wednesday and Thursday after being accused of inappropriately touching the private areas of a five-year-old girl.

After deliberating for less than three hours, the jury came back with the guilty verdict.

Read the full story here.

Rebecca Bryan, 52, was scheduled to appear 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Canadian County Courthouse for her preliminary hearing on a murder charge in connection with her husband’s shooting death on Sept. 20. The date for the hearing has been rescheduled for 9 a.m. March 14.

In a 911 phone call, Rebecca Bryan blamed an intruder for the shooting. She was arrested after the handgun used in the shooting was found inside her home in a clothes dryer.

She called 911 to report her husband being shot at 10:07 p.m. Sept. 20, the records show. She called her former lover that night about three hours earlier, at 7:19 p.m.

The OSBI agent reported Rebecca Bryan had an extramarital affair with the man from July 2009 to January 2010.

For more on the case and death of Keith Bryan, check out NewsOK’s ongoing coverage page here.

Photo by Paul Southerland: Rebecca Bryan, wife of slain fire chief Keith Bryan, walks into the courtroom with her attorney Gary James for her initial arraignment at the Canadian County Courthouse in El Reno Friday, Sept. 30, 2011.