TULSA, Okla. — A white former police officer in Oklahoma was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for the fatal off-duty shooting of his daughter’s black boyfriend, after four trials spanning nearly a year including three that resulted in hung juries.
Former Tulsa officer Shannon Kepler was convicted last month of first-degree manslaughter in the 2014 slaying of 19-year-old Jeremey Lake.
Tulsa County District Court Judge Sharon Holmes also issued him with a $10,000 fine.
Kepler’s lawyers said the 24-year police veteran was trying to protect his daughter because she had run away from home and was living in a crime-ridden neighborhood. Kepler, who retired from the force after he was charged, told investigators that Lake was armed and that he shot him in self-defense. Police never found a weapon on Lake or at the scene, and several neighbors testified that they didn’t see a gun, either.
There also was a racial undercurrent to the trials. Kepler killed Lake days before the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, fanned a national debate over the treatment of minorities by law enforcement.
A single black juror was seated for each of Kepler’s four trials, and civil rights activists accused Kepler’s lawyers of purposely trying to exclude potential black candidates, a charged that they denied.
The first three juries deadlocked 11-1, 10-2 and 6-6, forcing the judge to declare mistrials. Prosecutors said after the drawn-out case finally ended with a conviction last month that it took so long because many citizens are reluctant to send a law enforcement officer to prison.
Oklahoma law sets out a minimum sentence of four years for the charge but has no maximum term, leaving it up to Holmes to decide on the final punishment. Jurors had recommended a 15-year term.
https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/934606886560845824
Excellent news, but I wish he had been charged with a hate crime too.
https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/934458605134168065
😍😍😍😍😍
Our new love…..
Great picture, SG2. He is too precious, and he looks so comfortable and peaceful.
Thank you, Liza. We talk to him and he smiles away now. So much sweetness!
Fabulous photo!
I love that little guy. He is SOoooo precious!!!
Oh, Carson, you are a dear!
Thank you, Yahtc. My little sweet heart.
https://twitter.com/MeritLaw/status/934445641660583936
Subhuman mofo!
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/934451690513846272
Terrible and frightening!
The article informed that he would be arraigned December 4.
Yep.
I believe he did teach his four year old to call his neighbor a n***er. The same thing happened in my neighborhood here in Middle GA. When we moved into the neighborhood, my daughter was the only black kid here. One day when she was playing with some other neighborhood kids, a little boy called her a n***er for no reason. Now, why would a five year old kid know that word unless his parents and other adults he associates with had been using it to refer to some of their fellow citizens? The same little boy grew up and became a criminal. He never graduated from high school. My kid not only graduated from high school, she graduated from college and has a professional job in which she’s working her way up the corporate ladder at a major American company.
Majiir, my sister was in the grocery store and a little girl was riding in the shopping cart and pointed to my sister and said Mama, look, a nigger. My sister said the mother began to spank her on the hand. Sister looked at the Mom and said spank yourself. You taught it to her.
Unquestionably this comes from the home, the parents and the relatives etc… These folks think they can say anything in the “privacy” of their homes and it’s okay. But their little gremlins are listening and guess what? The children have not yet developed filters and they say what they hear. Just like a parrot.
But in the case of Mr, Keirian Kelly in the Root article, he’s training his kid in violent white supremacy and, as far as I’m concerned, that is child abuse.
From the article: “The elderly woman’s troubles with her disturbing neighbor began back in July, according to police reports and court documents. The woman said that she accidentally fell into Kelly’s wife in the lobby of their apartment complex.”
There was a time when black people were lynched for something like that. I think Mr. Kelly wants to return to that time, but this is the wrong century. Honestly, what do you do with someone like him? Wait until he kills someone? That’s where he’s headed.
Yep
https://youtu.be/YQ5E2FNkHrQ
👏👏👏 I agree with everything D.L. Hughley said in that video. 👍
Uh uh uh
https://youtu.be/JWdXusa1ZKQ
Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄