Comanche County jury finds man guilty of murder

A Comanche County jury deliberated for about an hour and a half Wednesday before returning a guilty verdict in a first-degree murder trial.

The jury also found Coyante Jacoy Williams guilty of assault and battery with a deadly weapon and recommended he serve life in prison. Due to the violent nature of the crime, Williams will have to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before being considered for parole. In Oklahoma, 45 years is considered a life sentence, so Williams will have to serve 38 years and 3 months at a minimum.

Williams was convicted of shooting Kalob R. Porter, 20, three times and killing him in September 2021.

Williams, 23, of Lawton, has been on trial this week in Comanche County Presiding Judge Emmit Tayloe’s court for counts of first-degree murder — deliberate intent, and a count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon.

The jurors also were presented with counts, in the alternative, of first-degree manslaughter and reckless conduct with a firearm. All the counts except for reckless conduct with a gun are punishable by up to life in prison.

Following the state’s presentation of evidence and testimony from Assistant District Attorney Jill Oliver, Williams took the witness stand in his defense. He offered a story of going to meet with Porter on Sept. 8, 2021, at 437 NW 53rd for Porter to buy drugs from his sister, Williams’ then 17-year-old girlfriend, Zakia Weldon.

Williams testified that Porter and he had been fighting and said he drew his gun in self-defense. He claimed that Porter was aggressive and had been choking him when he pushed him away. He claimed he and Weldon were falling back into the car when he fired the first round that superficially wounded Weldon before it struck Porter in the groin.

The second shot struck Porter in the mid-back and exited his side. The third shot went through the back of the 20-year-old’s head and exited his forehead. He died a few days later.

“I did not intent to do that,” he said, “I did not want to kill him.”

Williams then went on the run for five days before law enforcement found him hiding in a home in the Stephens County town of Comanche.

Al Hoch Jr., Williams’ defense counsel, argued in closing arguments his client was defending himself. He noted the Medical Examiner found Porter had a large amount of fentanyl in his blood system, even after several blood transfusions following the incident. He said Williams stood his ground against an aggressive man.

“His intent was to defend himself,” he said. “This simply is not a murder.”

During her closing arguments, Oliver reminded the jury that Williams had testified Porter was a gang member but that he was not. Following Williams’ testimony, however, she called Lt. Kenneth Hunley, a corrections officer at the Comanche County Detention Center who serves as a security threat group investigator who identifies gang members.

Hunley testified that Williams signed a document freely admitting he was a member of the Westside 107 Hoover Crips out of Dallas, Texas, since 2015 when he turned 16.

Oliver told the jury that, while she would gladly concede that maybe the first two shots fired by Williams could be considered self-defense, the third shot to the back of Porter’s head was premeditated and deliberative. She reminded them that Weldon testified the amount of time between the first and third shots was between five to 10 seconds. She timed out five seconds that made some jurors visibly uncomfortable.

Noting the opinion of the Medical Examiner that the first two shots that struck Porter were not lethal, the third served as a coupe de grace. She argued this was a case of murder.

“In what world is shooting someone in the back of the head self-defense?” she asked the jury.

Williams will undergo a pre-sentencing  investigation before being formally sentenced.