On March 10, at approximately 4:49 a.m., a teenager named Sevey Price called a man to say he was coming to his home to “shoot up his house.” A minute later, the car Price was in pulled up to the home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and the kids began sending bullets into a vehicle outside the house and the building itself. The car drove away… then returned a bit later to do it all over again. More than 20 bullets were fired in total. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Price was soon arrested along with the driver, Gordon McAuliff, and the other kid with them, Blake Kenneth Hagin.
Hagin is the most interesting name in the bunch because it now appears he won’t be going to trial for this drive-by shooting. And that may be because of his last name.
Kenneth E. Hagin, Blake’s great-grandfather, was one of the most famous evangelists in Oklahoma until his death in 2003. He founded Rhema Bible Training College and the family still runs the ministry with that name.
Former Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris was a close friend of the late evangelist, even getting name-checked at his funeral, and it looks like he pulled some strings to make sure Blake Hagin wouldn’t get into too much trouble.
We know all this thanks to great reporting by Dylan Goforth of The Frontier.
“I’m not going to enter into the court record on the case. I was approved by the family to negotiate on their behalf,” Harris told The Frontier.
“I don’t think that particular case is going to go to trial,” he said.
It’s unclear exactly what that negotiation entailed, though court records show it appears all three defendants will potentially evade a jury trial.
All three defendants have waived their preliminary hearings, typically a sign that some sort of plea agreement is likely.
…
… Hagin’s attorney, Michael King, …[filed] a motion last week asking to postpone Hagin’s arraignment until Tuesday because he believed “a resolution could be reached” without a trial.
How does a drive-by shooting result in a slap on the wrist?
When you’re a well-off white descendent of a famous Christian, and the former County DA (now running for Congress) — who was a close friend of that famous Christian —
can run interference for you, there’s a good chance you won’t have to spend much time behind bars.
Welcome to America, where being Christian matters a lot more than acting like Jesus.
(Thanks to @KaputRose for the link. Images via Newson6)
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