Sex-change patient convicted in road rage

A jury has recommended that Stacie Michelle<br>Bryen, who is also known as Rickey Dewayne Bryen, be sentenced to 30 years in prison in a case of road rage.<br><br>It's up to the state Corrections Department

Friday, November 5th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A jury has recommended that Stacie Michelle
Bryen, who is also known as Rickey Dewayne Bryen, be sentenced to 30 years in prison in a case of road rage.

It's up to the state Corrections Department to decide where to put Bryen, who is undergoing a sex change.

Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the state Corrections Department, said a decision on where to house Bryen will be made after an
evaluation at the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center.

"We will have to look at the medical condition of the person,"Massie said Thursday.

Bryen, who appeared in court this week dressed as a woman, was scheduled to complete the sex change in March. The road rage case had been repeatedly continued in hopes that Bryen could complete the procedure and get treatment, defense attorney Irven Box said.

Bryen is housed now in isolation on the medical floor at the Oklahoma County jail.

Bryen, 29, is believed to be only the second person undergoing a sex change to face prison time at a state corrections facility.

Jeanne Marie Druley, serving a life sentence for killing a live-in companion in 1986, is housed in a men's correctional facility.

An Oklahoma County District Court jury deliberated more than four hours Thursday before convicting Bryen of shooting with intent
to kill in a road rage incident from 1997.

The jury recommended a 30-year sentence. The sentencing will be delayed until a pre-sentence investigation report is completed.

Box had argued that Bryen's gender identity disorder prevented him from knowing right from wrong when he shot Kevin E. Menton five
times in a fit of road rage. Menton, 43, was shot with a 9 mm handgun while two people watched.

"I don't care if this defendant is a man, a woman, a man in a woman's body or a woman in a man's body," Assistant District
Attorney Sandra Elliott told jurors. "What matters is what he did on Jan. 16, 1997. All this talk about gender identity disorder is mumbo jumbo."

"Stacie Bryen is a person who has a mental disorder, a gender identity disorder, and I think they are going to have to do some
special things with him," Box said