Fentanyl cases top second week of Comanche County jury docket

The second week of Comanche County’s four-week felony jury trial docket opens Monday.

Prospective jurors will arrive for selection for one of the five trials slated to take place in Comanche County District Judge Grant Shepherd and District Judge Jay Walker’s courts.

Cases scheduled may change with pleas at any time before the start of the trials and several standby cases are schedule in that event.

Three higher profile trials include two fentanyl-related cases.

On Wednesday, a man accused of selling the drugs that caused the death of a man in 2022 will stand trial in Walker’s court in one of the first murder cases associated with selling a fatal overdose.

Tyler Dominique Allen, 30, of Lawton, will be on trial for felony counts of second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a controlled drug with intent to distribute, records indicate. The murder charge is punishable by between 10 years to life in prison.

Allen is accused of supplying the fentanyl that caused the overdose death of Phillip D. Shaw, according to the charges.

Police found Shaw dead in the backseat of his vehicle at his home at 209 NW 18th Street in June 2022, and is believed to have been dead two or three days before discovery, according to the probable cause affidavit. The investigation led to Allen and a woman who were staying at a local hotel.

Allen told police Shaw and the woman had come to his house on June 10, 2022, and he and Shaw snorted a Roxy M30 pill apiece, the affidavit states. Roxy M30s are counterfeit pills containing fentanyl to the much-weaker oxycodone pills. Both are synthetic opioids. He said Shaw walked out of the home but was in no shape to drive. Allen said he drove Shaw’s pickup with Shaw in the backseat, the affidavit states.

Allen and the woman talked about taking Shaw to the hospital but both were without licenses and didn’t want to get in trouble. He said he took Shaw to his home, thinking Shaw needed to “sleep it off” and they left him with his keys inside the truck. He and the woman walked back to his house.

Also on Monday, a man accused of aggravated fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking will be on trial in Walker’s courtroom.

Ty Dontrell Howard, 27, of Lawton, is charged with aggravated trafficking in fentanyl, trafficking in methamphetamine, endangering others while eluding/attempting to elude police, child endangerment by permitting the presence of drug manufacturing and maintaining a place for keeping/selling drugs, as well as a misdemeanor count of failure to stop at a red light, records indicate.

Howard is accused of carrying out several containers of suspected drugs from a home at 1215 SW D before leaving with the items in his vehicle. When an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper attempted to stop him, he led law enforcement on a high speed chase that ended at Woodridge Drive, the affidavit states. Investigators said Howard fled and hopped a fence and hid behind a house before being taken into custody by the trooper.

Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agents found 8.68 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of Howard’s car along with a safe containing 6,306 fentanyl pills and 338.5 grams of methamphetamine, according to the affidavit. A baggie containing 22.5 grams of ecstasy/MDMA powder also was found in a bag in the car’s backseat.

An accused firebug begins trial on Monday in Shepherd’s courtroom.

Michael Ross Farley, 36, of Lawton, is charged with felony counts of second-degree arson and endangering human life during arson, records indicate. The arson count is punishable by up to 35 years in prison.

Farley admitted to investigators he’d poured gasoline to ignite the Oct. 23, 2022, fire at an unoccupied house at 503½ SW Summit, the probable cause affidavit states. He is accused of endangering the life of emergency personnel who fought the blaze. He made his initial court appearance on Nov. 22, 2022.

Another set of charges against Farley are slated for the April/May jury trial docket. He also was charged on Nov. 22, 2022, with felony counts of second-degree burglary, as well as misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance and for possession of drug paraphernalia, records indicate.

Another case involving an assault with a dangerous charge from Nov. 17, 2022, is slated for the April/May trial docket.

Farley has been jailed since November 2022 on a combined $110,000 bond, records indicate.