Former Tulsa Police Officer Convicted Of Killing Daughter's Boyfriend To Appear In Court

Former Tulsa Police Officer Shannon Kepler is back in court Monday after he was released under the McGirt ruling in March. He is convicted of shooting and killing his daughter’s teenage boyfriend in 2014. This will be his fifth trial since 2014 but this date only comes after his lengthy motion to postpone today’s start date by no more than 60 days was denied by a judge. Related Story: Murder Trial Delayed For Former Tulsa Cop Shannon Kepler Kepler was originally convicted by a jury of first-degr

Monday, April 19th 2021, 7:20 am

By: News On 6, Brooke Griffin

This will be his fifth trial since 2014 but this date only comes after his lengthy motion to postpone today’s start date by no more than 60 days was denied by a judge.

Kepler was originally convicted by a jury of first-degree murder, but that was eventually downgraded in a later trial to a first-degree manslaughter charge in 2017. He was then sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence, but he recently appealed that conviction last year on the grounds that he was tried in the wrong jurisdiction based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt ruling last year. Kepler claimed to be a fraction of Native American descent and the court found that to be true.

Due to the ruling, Kepler was released from prison in March but is now heading back to federal court today to be tried under the terms and conditions of the McGirt ruling.

Two weeks ago Kepler filed a motion to postpone his trial under the premise that the Derek Chauvin trial in Minnesota is “too similar and too publicized in the media” for him to receive a fair trial so his start date should be pushed back. He said in the motion that since Chauvin’s trial is still active, emotions are too high nationwide for him to receive fair treatment in the courtroom. Former Minneapolis Police Office Derek Chauvin was arrested last summer after a video showed him kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. He is currently on trial in Minneapolis but has thus far chosen not to testify.

That motion also shows in another point he asked to postpone due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic because the jurors and staff’s health should be kept a priority, so they should be kept safe and not in a courtroom. The motion mentioned that he is willing to waive his right to a speedy trial if these requests were granted.

The judge denied all of those motions. Kepler’s fifth trial is set to begin at the federal courthouse at 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.