NORMAN — A jury convicted a man of first-degree felony murder Monday in the death of Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Heath Meyer, who was killed when two troopers’ cruisers collided at a road block and one struck him while he was on foot.
After less than 2½ hours of deliberation, the 12-person panel recommended that D’angelo Burgess serve life with a possibility of parole. Prosecutors had asked jurors to recommend life imprisonment without that chance.
The 28-year-old Oklahoma City man also was convicted of attempting to elude law enforcement, for which the jury recommended the maximum five-year sentence. He was acquitted of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The defense’s case during the six-day trial centered on whether troopers were overly aggressive and failed to adhere to the OHP’s policy on vehicular pursuits. Prosecutors countered by trying to demonstrate that the policy played out as designed.
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But during closing arguments, District Attorney Greg Mashburn emphasized that the policy is irrelevant to the felony murder charge because not a single element of proving the crime involves whether troopers were following protocol.
“They are trying to add a seventh element. Do you like OHP’s policy?” Mashburn said of the defense. “They are trying to add that element for you. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s not appropriate.”
A suspect can be charged with felony murder when a death occurs during the commission of a felony — in this case, attempting to elude an officer.
Mashburn asked the jury not to get distracted but to focus on the fact that Burgess himself was a substantial factor — a legal term the state must prove. He said the defense spent the last week disparaging troopers to try to draw jurors into a discussion of law officers and their pursuit policy rather than Burgess’ actions.
“You can’t remove this defendant and say it’s just all troopers,” Mashburn said. “If it’s only troopers there that night, then this (death) doesn’t happen.”
He told jurors that if any of them had a problem with OHP’s pursuit policy, they could address those concerns after the trial with the agency itself.
“But don’t send this defendant home because of that, because it’s not an element (of felony murder),” Mashburn said.
Trooper Rodney Rideaux made a traffic stop on Burgess on the night of July 14, 2017, on Interstate 35 in Moore. When Rideaux told Burgess that he was following another vehicle too closely, he saw that Burgess wasn’t wearing a seat belt and learned that he didn’t have a driver’s license.
Burgess then fled, and several minutes later troopers set up a road block on I-35.
Burgess maneuvered through the roadblock unscathed, avoiding two sets of stop sticks. Rideaux came to a halt in the inside lane because one of the tire deflation devices was in front of him and another vehicle was on his right.
Trooper Clint Painter, the secondary pursuer, collided with the driver’s side of Rideaux’s cruiser at 59 mph. Painter’s car careened into the concrete median wall, slamming into Meyer, who had hopped over the barrier to remove his stop sticks from in front of Rideaux.
Meyer died from his injuries 10 days later.
During closing arguments, public defender Jim Radford brought up language used during the testimony of Rideaux, an ex-trooper now facing misdemeanor charges of using law enforcement equipment to stalk women.
Rideaux had likened vehicular pursuits to a rabbit chase or cat-and-mouse.
Radford called each a fitting and interesting analogy, because troopers are supposed to promote the public’s safety. He asked the jury to contemplate how each ends — with the pursued creature either escaping or being killed.
“That’s not the policy. That’s not what their policy says to do,” Radford said. “And they are supposed to be considering those (risk) factors throughout.”
He said troopers didn’t abide by their policy to continuously weigh the risk of a pursuit against the benefits of apprehension as the dangers escalated. He also challenged the state’s assertion that the troopers were well-trained.
“You can’t say the officers were well-trained and then the facts turned out like they did,” Radford said.
He argued that other independent factors — troopers’ own actions — separate Meyer’s death from the initial cause of fleeing the traffic stop.
During testimony, the state circled back to the concept that troopers thought there was a serious reason Burgess was fleeing that they didn’t know about, such as murder, rape or kidnapping.
“You don’t make life-or-death decisions on things you don’t know,” Radford said. “You don’t chase what you don’t know, and you don’t put people’s lives at risk for what you don’t know.”
Assistant District Attorney Corey Miner told jurors Burgess reached a speed of 110 mph and passed 81 vehicles during the pursuit. He endangered 81 motorists and any other occupants in their vehicles.
“No flee. No chase. No death,” Miner said. “That’s as simple as this case is.”
