Convicted Oklahoma Killers Have Postings On MySpace Website

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- At least two convicted murderers on Oklahoma's death row have pictures and information about themselves posted on MySpace.com, a social networking Web site popular with young

Sunday, January 21st 2007, 2:09 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- At least two convicted murderers on Oklahoma's death row have pictures and information about themselves posted on MySpace.com, a social networking Web site popular with young people.

The MySpace pages for Yancy Douglas and Julius D. Jones, both awaiting death sentences at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, were discovered during a check by The Oklahoman of the almost 90 murderers awaiting execution in Oklahoma.

"I hope to find a woman with whom I can build a 'solid' foundation of unconditional friendship with!" Douglas wrote in his MySpace profile. "All I ask for is a chance!!!"

Douglas, 33, was convicted for the 1993 shooting of a 14-year-old girl in Oklahoma City.

Jones, 26, was convicted for the 1999 shooting of insurance executive Paul Scott Howell during a carjacking in Edmond.

"Oh, my God, I cannot believe that," said Howell's sister, Megan Howell Tobey, when told Jones was on MySpace.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," said Tobey, 60, of Edmond. "Something should be done."

Corrections officials said no inmates have access to the Internet so relatives or friends probably put up the pictures and created the profiles for the murderers.

"We don't have any policy that prohibits them from having a MySpace page," corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said. "Obviously, they're not the ones who can access it through the computer or anything. If someone else does it, then we don't have any control over that."

A Houston crime victims' advocate, Andy Kahan, discovered last year that about 40 Texas death row inmates were on MySpace.com. He wrote the Web site company, asking it to remove the murderers.

"I sent them several messages and never heard back from them," said Kahan, director of the Houston mayor's crime victims office.

MySpace officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Oklahoman.