MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

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July 8, 2008

Trial continues in assault case

Jury trial will continue today for Jerry DeWitt Raney, who is charged with multiple counts of domestic abuse by strangulation and intimidation of a witness.

Raney, 44, also has other cases pending. He is accused of filing a claim on a car reported stolen that had been sold after the vehicle identification number had been switched, and in a separate case, he’s also been charged with planning or scheming to kill a number of people, including several law enforcement officers. He will stand trial for those charges at a later date.

Raney has been named by the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office as the chief suspect in the homicide of Raney’s 19-year-old stepdaughter, Sara Smart. Smart was reported missing in late January 2006 and was found Aug. 5, 2006, inside a barrel that had drifted onto the banks of a farm pond about five miles west of Haskell.

Raney has not been charged in Smart’s death.

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