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July 25, 2008

Wagoner man’s sentencing delayed

By Donna Hales



WAGONER — A Wagoner man who pleaded guilty in May to the April 2006 shooting death of his wife was scheduled for sentencing Friday, but it was delayed.

Colbert Dene Shoemaker Jr., 30, earlier had confessed to killing Stacy Shoemaker, 26, pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter.

Shoemaker’s stepfather, sister, newspaper reporters and photographers attended the planned sentencing that was still on Friday’s court docket.

Officials said a new sentencing date will be agreed upon soon.

Shoemaker agreed to a sentence of 45 years in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. He will be required to serve at least 85 percent of that time, which is 38 years and three months. With credit for time served, it will be more than 36 years before he will be eligible for parole, prosecutors said.

John David Luton, first assistant district attorney for Wagoner, Adair, Cherokee and Sequoyah Counties, said one of Shoemaker’s defense attorneys with the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System requested a delay in sentencing on July 8.

The filing in Wagoner County District Court states she is the lead counsel. The filing states her reasoning for requesting the continuance as a “personal scheduling conflict.”

Shoemaker originally told police his wife was killed by an intruder during a burglary and later said his wife died after he struggled with her over a gun and it went off. He said the two had been arguing and he accidentally shot her.

He said when he saw her suffering, he covered her head with a pillow and shot her a second time in the head.

Her 7-year-old daughter found her body before noon the day she died. The child had spent the previous night with her grandparents.



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