Comanche County jury acquits man of second-degree murder

Christian Vance Lane Sr. was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Friday. However, a Comanche County jury found him guilty of possession of a firearm after former felony conviction.

Lane, 31, had been on trial in the shooting death of Elijah Jones the morning of Jan. 17, 2023, at a local bar. The jury deliberated for just over 2 hours before rendering its verdict, following two days of testimony.

Lane has prior Comanche County felony convictions from June 2011 for first-degree burglary; and September 2011, for three counts of second-degree burglary and possession of a firearm after delinquent adjudication, according to records.

Jones family left en masse and sobbing following the not guilty verdict.

Friday’s testimony centered on geofencing, the use of GPS technology to create a virtual geographic boundary, enabling software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves a particular area.

During her testimony, Lawton Police Criminal Intelligence Analyst Amanda King said she followed the data provided by Google from a search warrant seeking cellphone data for location and geofencing from the night.

Entered into evidence was the mapping of Lane’s iPhone and Galaxy cellphones taken into evidence from Jan. 17, 2023, before and after the shooting death of Jones, 20, around 2:13 a.m. Jan. 17, 2023, in the parking lot of Aces & Eights Lounge, 1825 Cache Road. Jones was found bleeding from his neck and pronounced dead at the scene.

The early portion of the mapping followed what Lane told Lawton Police Detective Robert Meurant following his arrest: he’d been at his apartment at 2505 NW 82nd before leaving to pick up Corey Schexnayder at the Timbers Apartments. The cell phones then tracked to Aces & Eights where they arrive at 1:09 a.m. and enter at 1:16 a.m. Security video showed the arrival of Lane’s car and the men entering the bar as well as their exit at 1:34 a.m.

Before leaving the bar, Lane and Schexnayder are seen walking over to the north fence in the parking lot, where it is believed the fatal shot was fired later, before going back to Lane’s car and going back to Schexnayder’s apartment where they arrived at 1:40 a.m. In his interview with Meurant, Lane said he then went home for the night.

King’s data analysis showed Lane returned to the parking lot to the north of the fence at Aces & Eights; security video showed a car pull in and back into a space at 1:57 a.m. Seconds after the fatal gunshot at 2:13 a.m., video and data showed the car leaving the parking lot at a high rate of speed and a doorbell camera caught the car passing at Northwest 12th Street and Lawton Avenue one minute later.

The geofencing data showed Lane went to a home in Sherwood Village Mobile Home Park, 601 NE Flower Mound, where he stayed until 3:23 a.m. Data showed he left 10 minutes later, drove by Aces & Eights, which at this point was a crime scene, and arrived at his apartment at 3:42 a.m. Data showed he returned to Sherwood Village before 6 a.m. before later leaving for Dallas, Texas, where King testified his cellphones tracked to staying for an hour before returning to his Lawton apartment.

The GPS data showed that later that day, Lane traveled to Clovis, N.M. Data also showed one of his phones traveled to Alamagordo, N.M., for a short time before returning to Clovis where they would remain until Lane’s return on Jan. 20.

During closing arguments, Lane’s attorney Joi Miskel cited potential reasons the jurors shouldn’t trust the data. She said the data only offers an approximation and can be fallible and there’s no evidence the phones were in Lane’s possession during the time.

“It’s an important case, it’s a simple case; question everything,” she said. “There’s too much assuming going on.”

Miskel argued Meurant targeted Lane as the murder suspect without considering other potential suspects at the scene that morning.

“Law enforcement didn’t do its job,” she said in closing.

Assistant District Attorney Madeline Vasquez told the jury why she brought in Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation witnesses on Thursday who were unable to find DNA or fingerprint evidence tying Lane to the crime. However, two pockets in a pair of Lane’s pants matching what he was wearing on Jan. 17, 2023, tested positive for gunshot residue. Vasquez noted those pants, a black shirt and Lane’s underwear were recovered  from a trash bag located next to the dirty clothes hamper during a search of his apartment.

Along with the eluding charges, Lane also has a pending felony case from his time in the Comanche County Detention Center. In July 2023, he was charged with felony counts of conspiracy to bring drugs into jail and possession of a cell phone in a penal institution, records indicate.

Lane has a separate felony case for an eluding charge that is scheduled for the July/August jury trial docket. 

Lane is being held on $150,000 bond for eluding charge and another $50,000 for jail-related charges.