Assault charges leveled against former Lawton Correctional Facility inmates

Arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for two former Lawton Correctional Facility inmates for separate assault allegations.

Both cases involve gang-related issues, according to investigators.

In the first, the Comanche County District Court issued a felony arrest warrant for Denyreo Donnell Chairs, 35, for charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy to commit assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and gang-related offense, records indicate.

Chairs is accused of a May 16, 2023, attack on an inmate in the Bloods gang that left the man injured with 10 stab wounds. The inmate was out of his housing unit working as an orderly when he delivered ice in a pod that houses members of the Hoover Crips gang. According to the warrant affidavit, Chairs first attacked the man and was joined by fellow gang members.

The injured inmate suffered 10 stab wounds and was flown to OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City for treatment.

Corrections officers went to get Chairs from his cell and found him holding a knife and threatening to stab his cellmate, the affidavit states. He surrendered and turned over the knife.

During an interview with Agent John Bales from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Chairs admitted to stabbing the inmate under direction of other Hoover Crips in his unit, the affidavit states. He said he’d been accused of being a snitch and pleaded to be moved out of the facility, Bales stated. He has since been moved to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, according to Department of Corrections records.

Chairs has six prior felony convictions: Tulsa County – January 2006, aggravated assault and battery; November 2006, possession of a firearm after former felony conviction; May 2013, shooting with intent to kill; Payne County in October 2015, assault and battery on a corrections officer; and Muskogee County in February 2014, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute and eluding/attempting to elude police, records indicate.

Separate case

Another former Lawton Correctional Facility inmate is accused of escaping his cell and assaulting a corrections officer with soap inside a sock in October 2023.

A felony arrest warrant was issued for Demetri Chism, 26, for assault and battery on a corrections officer, records indicate.

Chism is accused of manipulating his cell’s locking mechanism the morning of Oct. 5, 2023, and assaulting the officer with several hits to the face from the soap-filled sock, the affidavit states. The guard suffered a cut to his left upper eye, Agent Tommy Stranahan stated.

Chism told corrections staff, “Tell DOC and the Wardens that the STG ‘Bloods” need to be transferred” from their current unit or that more staff would be assaulted, according to the affidavit.

Chism has since been transferred to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Records indicate Chism has three prior felony convictions: Cherokee County in April 2016 for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; Wagoner County in May 2017 for larceny; and Tulsa County in August 2018 for robbery with a dangerous weapon.