Several cases frame second week of jury trials

Comanche County jurors will return to the courthouse Monday morning for placement on the second week of the jury trial docket.

It’s a full case load.

On Monday, former Lawton Correctional Facility inmate Jordan Neconish, 42, will go on trial for killing another inmate in 2020. He will begin trial for a count of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and possession of contraband in Comanche County District Judge Grant Sheperd’s court, records indicate.

Neconish is accused of working in concert with another inmate, Chance Carl Barrett, 25, of committing the Jan. 17, 2020, stabbing death of Brian Piper, 31. Barrett pleaded guilty to the same counts in June 2022 and was ordered to serve two life sentences.

According to the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s autopsy report, Piper died as a result of at least 19 stab wounds. He sustained stab wounds to the face, scalp, neck, chest, back, right arm and hand as well as numerous bruises and abrasions.

Piper was killed while housed at the prison, 8607 SE Flower Mound Road. He had been serving multiple sentences out of Pontotoc County for possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, possession of substances to be used as precursors to manufacture methamphetamine and using an offensive weapon while in commission of a felony, according to Oklahoma Department of Corrections records.

Neconish and Barrett were transferred to Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester following the murder.

Neconish had been serving time at Lawton Correctional Facility for a possession of contraband conviction from Pontotoc County before his transfer.

Barrett is already serving a life sentence for a first-degree murder conviction from January 2019 in Rogers County, records indicate. He pleaded no contest to the August 2017 killing of a 73-year-old Claremore woman.

Bennie Warren McCurtain, a.k.a. Benny, 42, of Elgin, will begin trial Monday in Chief District Judge Scott D. Meaders’ court for for trial on felony counts of first-degree rape and lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16, records indicate.

McCurtain is accused of sexual misconduct with the girl in June 2015, according to the probable affidavit. The girl told investigators in 2015 when she was 6-years-old, she was lying on the couch when McCurtain laid behind her, pulled his pants down and rubbed himself on her. He stopped because someone came back to the house, she said.

The girl told investigators McCurtain had also molested her on separate occasions in Fletcher and at his Elgin mobile home, the affidavit states.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections records indicate McCurtain received two felony convictions in Cotton County in December 2004 for assault and/or battery with a dangerous weapon.

On Wednesday, Dallas Lee Coosewoon, 29, will begin trial in Meaders’ courtroom for counts of first-degree rape (by force or fear) and rape by instrumentation, records indicate. The first-degree rape count is punishable by between five years to life in prison.

Coosewoon is accused of a June 6, 2022, sexual assault at a Geronimo home. The alleged victim said she was in the bathroom of the Geronimo home, getting ready to return to her Lawton home, when Coosewoon put her kids outside before picking her up and putting her on the bed.

The woman said he held her down on her back and after she couldn’t get him off of her, she turned on the audio recorder of her phone, the affidavit states. Despite her protestations, she said he then raped her, including with his fingers. She said he had apparently also raped her in her sleep.

On Wednesday, Kristopher Werner Gohl, 45, will face trial for a count of aggravated assault and battery, records indicate.

Gohl had been arrested in early-May 2021 for a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, records indicate. However, that charge was dismissed April 20, 2022.

According to the probable cause affidavit, on April 15, 2021, Gohl was at his girlfriend’s apartment at Apple Run & Deer Park Apartments, 2405 NW 22nd, when he heard noises he described to investigators as a fight in the apartment above. When he heard footsteps coming down the steps, he told investigators he picked up a wooden baseball bat and walked out into the breezeway.

Gohl told police he positioned himself with the bat in both hands, ready to swing. When the man turned, Gohl said he warned the man he would “crack” him with the bat if he returned up the stairs, the affidavit states.

When the man turned to go back up the stairs, Gohl told police he struck him three times in the head with the bat, causing the man to fall onto the back of his head on the concrete, according to the affidavit.

The man was taken to Comanche County Memorial Hospital in a coma and was later taken to to AMG Specialty Hospital in Oklahoma City for long-term assisted living care, the affidavit states.