Test Planned For Suspect In State Drug Agent's Death

Thursday, January 4th 2007, 11:14 am

By: News On 6

WOODWARD, Okla. (AP) _ A suspect in the death of a state narcotics agent will be placed in state custody while doctors try to determine if he is fit to stand trial, a judge has decided.

Leslie Don Vance was shot in the back during a struggle with Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agent Choc Ericsson that left the agent dead and Vance paralyzed from the chest down.

Doctors suspect the shot and subsequent blood loss led to brain damage and memory loss, said Don Work, Woodward County assistant district attorney.

Vance spent months in recovery and was released by the state Department of Mental Health last spring.

Vance, who was on probation after a prior drug conviction when Ericsson was killed, has not been arrested or charged since the agent's death.

Witnesses at the Nov. 11, 2005, encounter said Vance had been using methamphetamine that night and appeared to try to run Ericsson's wife and two children off the road, Woodward said. He followed the agent's wife home, where Ericsson got in his official vehicle and pursued Vance.

Ericsson stopped the vehicle but Vance dove back inside. The agent feared the man was going for a gun and grabbed him as he tried to drive away, Woodward said.

Vance was shot and Ericsson was run over by the vehicle's rear tires when he fell away from the door.