Duncan man enters guilty plea, sentenced for death of child

A Duncan man entered a guilty plea and was sentenced in a Stephens County Courtroom Friday for the death of a 3-year-old child dating back to 2022.

Ryan Tyler Towell, 23, entered a guilty plea Friday to one count of murder in the first degree by child abuse and a second count of child abuse that resulted in the death of the 3-year-old child in 2022. 

A judge also sentenced him Friday to life without the possibility of parole for the murder count and five years for the child abuse count, according to paperwork from the Stephens County Courthouse.

According to the Medical Examiner’s report, the child’s manner of death was homicide by blunt force trauma.

Records show at 10:49 a.m. Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, Duncan Police’s 911 line received a call of a 3-year-old child not breathing at Elm Terrace Apartments, located in the 200 block of east Elm Street.

Authorities found “questionable injuries to the child inconsistent with the reported accident,” which resulted in the arrest of Towell, who was then the boyfriend of Caitlyn Cheyenne Downs, on Sept. 19, 2022. On Sept. 22, 2022, Towell was arraigned and charged with first-degree murder and child abuse, records show.

While investigating, Duncan Police learned the child’s mother, Downs, fell under the McGirt Act, which gave jurisdiction to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The case went federal, according to U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester, because Downs is a “citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the alleged crime occurred within the boundaries of the Chickasaw Nation.”

Downs, 24, of Stephens County, also has entered a guilty plea to a charge of federal child abuse this year in the case, according to Troester. Downs was indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts in December 2022 for murder in the second degree and two counts of child abuse. She was arrested on Dec. 14, 2022, by the FBI.

According to Troester, the indictment alleges between May 2022 and September 2022, “Downs willfully failed to protect two minor children from harm or threatened harm” and the harm resulted in death of one of the children.

On Aug. 29, 2023, Downs was “charged by a one-count superseding information with child abuse.”

During a hearing Sept. 11, 2023, Downs entered her guilty plea to the single count of superseding information before U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot. She also “admitted that she was responsible for the health, safety and welfare of the minor children and failed to protect them from harm to their health and safety.”

Downs, at sentencing, faces up to life in prison and a fine up to $5,000. The plea agreement shows the government “has agreed to dismiss the indictment at sentencing, based on her guilty plea to the superseding information.”

Sentencing for Downs is anticipated in the next 90 days.

Duncan Police Sgt. Layle Baker, who worked the case in 2022, previously told The Banner, “In 31 years of doing this job, it’s probably one of the worst I’ve ever seen. … All I can tell you is that I don’t ever want to see that again.”