GUILTY OK - Sonja James, 30, shot to death, Cushing, 5 Dec 2013

CUSHING — A 97-year-old Payne County man was charged Friday with fatally shooting his great-granddaughter at their home.

Russell Eugene Dawes told a deputy on Thursday that he “got tired of her carrying on and I shot her,” according to an affidavit filed in Payne County District Court on Friday.
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The slaying was reported to authorities by a funeral director who was contacted by Dawes, the affidavit says.

Rodger Floyd, the owner and director of the Davis Funeral Home in Cushing, went to the residence shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday in response to a call from Dawes to pick up a dead body, the document says.

Floyd said Friday night that he called the Payne County Sheriff’s Office on his way to Dawes’ house to report an unattended death.

Once Floyd was there, Dawes confessed to him that he had shot and killed James, Floyd said.

He then immediately called the Sheriff’s Office back and relayed the conversation, he said Friday night.
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Payne County District Attorney Tom Lee said Dawes had no criminal record of which he is aware.
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musicaljoke said:

She was shot in the chin and found in her bed. He certainly didn't put her in the bed, so what was she doing in her bed that caused him such ire? Was she snoring? Not likely, since that would hardly bother a 97 yr old man.

Was there someone else in the house at the time, I wonder? Is he taking the fall for another family member?

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cuffem said:

Sounds like dementia.There was a case in Raleigh this year of an 98 yr.old man shooting a family member in the driveway.Not sure what happened afterwards the story just went away.

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A trial for a 99-year-old man charged with first-degree murder in the shotgun slaying of his 30-year-old great-granddaughter on Dec. 5, 2013, at his then-residence in rural Cushing has been scheduled to begin on May 2, 2016...

Dawes told Cushing funeral director Rodger Floyd that the victim, Sonja Rose James, who was living with him southwest of Cushing, possibly as his caretaker, “had beaten him and he was tired of it.”

Dawes appeared to have two black eyes when he was jailed, the undersheriff said.

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A 100-year-old man was placed on probation for life today on his guilty plea to first-degree murder in the shotgun slaying of his 30-year-old great granddaughter on Dec. 5, 2013, at his then-residence in rural Cushing.

Russell Eugene Dawes, who now lives with his daughter in Tennessee, was not in court today in Stillwater, but entered his plea this afternoon by video conference with his attorneys Cheryl Ramsey of Stillwater and William Ahrberg of Cushing.

Dawes, who remains on an ankle monitor, was given a suspended sentence for life except one year in the Payne County Jail, which District Judge Phillip Corley indicated he had already served, Sheriff’s Captain Kevin Woodward told KUSH today.

According to the undersheriff, Dawes told Cushing funeral director Rodger Floyd that the victim, Sonja Rose James, who was living with him southwest of Cushing, possibly as his caretaker, “had beaten him and he was tired of it.”

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District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas noted that the case was filed before she took office and explained the rationale for the sentence:

“He had to be released from the jail due to serious health issues, which the sheriff didn’t want to have to be responsible for. I don’t believe DOC (the state prison system) has any 97-year-olds in DOC, who would have to foot an enormous health care bill for him.

“He is now 100. DOC has no 100-year-old inmates. He lives in another state under the care of and in the home of his daughter.

“I believe this was the best solution,” the prosecutor said.

“The public is completely protected, he wears an ankle monitor for most likely the rest of his life, he doesn’t leave his home and the state of Oklahoma will not have to support him,” the DA said.

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ScarlettScarpetta said:

This was my first thought. I wonder if he just had a complete fog moment and lost touch with reality?

It is sad.

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