Comanche County Jurors asked to determine if fentanyl overdose murder or misadventure

Opening arguments began late Wednesday in the trial of a man who is accused of providing the drugs that caused the death of another person in 2022.

Jury selection took more than seven hours in the case of Tyler Dominique Allen, 30, of Lawton. Allen is on trial in Comanche County District Judge Jay Walker’s courtroom 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.

In his opening arguments, District Attorney Kyle Cabelka noted the uniqueness of the case. He asked the seven women, five men and one male alternate jurors to consider some questions.

“It’s one that causes a lot of questions to be asked,” he said. “Is someone responsible for the choice of another and should they be held liable?”

“When does something go from being an accident to becoming murder?”

Cabelka laid out the chain of events. He said Shaw and Colbert had been together drinking and going places on June 10, 2022. Shaw, a local bail bondsman, was known to have substance abuse issues and Colbert is a heavy drinker, he said.

The pair went to Allen’s home he shares with his mother, Nicole “Luck” Walton, and all was apparently well at that point, according to Cabelka. They left and went to a party and later returned to Allen’s home where they went into Allen’s room. Allen, who admitted to being addicted to fentanyl, took out a pill and crushed it before snorting it. Cabelka said there’s testimony Shaw asked if he could have one, too, and after snorting his pill, the three readied to leave.

Walton was returning home from walking her dog and has said Shaw didn’t seem well, according to the district attorney. Allen drove Shaw’s truck while Shaw got into the back seat. Allen has told police Shaw slumped over and began making sounds like he was snoring, so he backed Shaw’s truck into his driveway and left him inside while he and Colbert walked back to his house. They then left and stayed in a local hotel.

Cabelka said Walton grew concerned and walked over by Shaw’s house but didn’t see him or any lights on and left. Two or three days later, people had grown concerned about Shaw and a welfare check was conducted by a police officer.

Shaw was found dead in the backseat of his vehicle at his home at 209 NW 18th Street. Investigators learned Allen and Colbert were the last people to see him.

When they were brought in for questioning, Allen said he and Colbert had talked about taking Shaw to the hospital but both were without licenses and didn’t want to get in trouble and “were scared,” Cabelka said. At first, Allen told police he didn’t know where Shaw got the pill. He also had the same bag of pills with him when he was brought to the police station and told investigators Shaw may have grabbed one from his bag.

Cabelka said Allen never told police he’d given Shaw the pill that killed him from acute fentanyl poisoning. He said things could have been different if someone had just called for help when first realizing Shaw was in a distressed state.

“This was all so preventable,” he said.

Clay Shepperson, representing Allen, agreed with many of the facts leading up to the time Shaw took the fentanyl. He told jurors to expect testimony to be different than the DA’s presentation.

“There are issues whether my client actually gave him the pill,” he said. “What you won’t hear in testimony is my client handed him the pill.”

Shepperson noted Shaw’s substance abuse history, including a then-pending felony case for maintaining a home for the distribution of drugs. He said Allen wasn’t distributing the drugs he relied on due to his addiction and called the case “more complicated” than the state presents. He put Shaw’s death into the lap of his own misadventure.

“It’s the unfortunate result of a choice made by Phillip Shaw,” he said. “Tyler didn’t make him do anything. … he chose to consume it.”

Testimony resumes this morning.