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Teen found guilty in murder of father

Jury gives Oakes 10 years

After six full days of listening to testimony and a couple of hours of closing arguments on the seventh, a jury was tasked Thursday with deciding if William Wyatt Oakes was justified when he shot and killed his father inside their home near Rhome two years ago or if he committed murder.

William Wyatt Oakes

Oakes and his defense attorneys argued the then-15-year-old – a few weeks shy of his 16th birthday – had no choice but to take deadly action against an abusive father the night of Aug. 18, 2017. Prosecutors argued Oakes was mad because his father had just taken his phone from him and he brought a loaded gun into the room where his father was with the intent of shooting him.

After four hours of deliberation, the jury returned its unanimous verdict of guilt.

Following the verdict, Oakes was placed into custody with the Wise County Sheriff’s Office. He was back in court Friday as the punishment phase of his trial began. He was facing 5 to 99 years in prison, unless the jury found he acted with sudden passion, in which case the punishment range was 2 to 20 years. He was sentenced to 10 years, with the jury finding he did not act with sudden passion.

In his closing argument Thursday morning, Assistant District Attorney Jay Lapham said Oakes’ father, David Oakes, did not pose a threat to his son at the moment of the shooting.

“He was barefoot, no knife, no gun, talking to his wife. He turns around and sees Wyatt with a gun and he says, ‘What are you going to do? Shoot me?’ That’s exactly what Wyatt does. That’s not self-defense,” he said.

Lapham argued that if David Oakes indeed started coming at his son quickly as Wyatt Oakes testified, it was because he was provoked by his son bringing a rifle into the family room.

He also disputed Wyatt Oakes’ version of events that he closed his eyes before he started shooting and didn’t open them until after he had fired off at least 13 rounds from his .22 caliber rifle. Those shots resulted in nine wounds to his father. Lapham pointed out that evidence such as the location of the shell casings and the location and angles of the bullet wounds in his father didn’t support the younger Oakes’ version of events.

Instead, Lapham offered his view of what the evidence showed: that Wyatt came close to his father, shot him just under the left eye, which knocked his father down to the floor. Wyatt then shot his father three times in the abdomen area while he was on the ground, and then walked over and “executed” his father with more shots to his head.

“He had his dad’s life in his hands, and what did he do? He gunned him down like he was an animal,” Lapham said.

Defense Attorney Reagan Wynn began his closing argument by reminding the jury of their solemn responsibility.

“You are quite likely the most powerful people in the United States of America right now. You hold the life of an 18-year-old in your hands because of something he did as a terrified 15-year-old child,” he said.

Wynn argued that prosecutors had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their client did not act in self-defense, and he told the jury that was not the case.

He outlined the evidence the defense had brought up during its case: that David Oakes had been physically abusive to Wyatt for years, and that when the two scuffled over a phone just minutes before the deadly shooting, the older Oakes had assaulted his son.

Fellow defense attorney Elizabeth Berry emphasized the abusive nature of the father-son relationship during her closing argument.

“We should have David Oakes sitting up here at this table,” she said, pointing to the witness stand. “We should have David Oakes on trial for the fact that he didn’t recognize how precious his own family, how precious our client, was. Make no mistake about it, this is child abuse.”

Berry asked the jury to simply give Wyatt Oakes what he has always deserved.

“Who deserves something in this case? Wyatt. He deserved to have a dad who loved and cared for him. Wyatt deserved a mom who would protect him. And Wyatt deserved a community of people who would look out for him. Today, you are that community. You have Wyatt’s life in your hands. We’re asking you to take care of him. We’re asking you to give him what he’s always deserved: a life,” she said.

Lapham argued that David Oakes may not have been a perfect father, and he would have liked the opportunity to have him on the stand so he could ask him about the allegations of abuse, but he couldn’t because of the actions of his son.

“This was an execution. Did Wyatt try to give his dad medical attention after the shooting? Did he try to call 911? No, because he wanted his dad – who he shot at 13 times – he wanted him dead. Period.”

After the verdict was read, several jurors wiped tears from their eyes as they filed out of the courtroom into the hallway where sobbing could be heard.

WYATT OAKES TESTIFIES

On Tuesday afternoon, Wyatt Oakes took the stand to testify about his relationship with his dad and the events surrounding the deadly shooting.

When Berry asked him to talk about the terrible things his dad had done in the past, Wyatt Oakes recalled times when he was around 5 years old when his father held him by the neck against a wall and another time he was whipped with a belt, leaving welts. He also recalled seeing his father drown a couple of stray dogs when he was younger.

Around the age of 14, Wyatt Oakes said his father threatened to kill him after his father didn’t like the tone of his voice. The next year, he said he watched his father throw his older sister to the ground during an argument.

When he was 15, his father burned him on the arm with a butane torch while he was sitting at the computer, he said. The injury left a scar, which was shown to the jury.

Just weeks before the shooting, David Oakes came home to find his son working on a moped but didn’t like how it was being done, his son testified.

“He said, ‘Stop wasting our f-ing time,’ and he punched me in the jaw,” Wyatt Oakes said. “… He said he would kill me if we ever got in a real fight.”

When asked about the day of the shooting, Wyatt Oakes admitted he did go to his girlfriend’s house earlier that day – in violation of his parents’ orders – and then lied about it to his parents later before admitting the truth and apologizing.

He said his father replied by saying, “Get out of my face.”

Wyatt Oakes said he went to another room and his dad followed him and asked for his phone. David Oakes then knocked the phone out of his son’s hand, Wyatt Oakes testified, and pushed him into a cabinet before taking him to the floor.

“He got on top of me and started choking me,” Wyatt Oakes said. ” … He said not to hit him. If I ever hit him, he would ‘end me.'”

Following that confrontation, Wyatt Oakes said his dad left the room, and he went into his room where he loaded his .22 caliber rifle.

A short time later, after showing his older sister the red marks his dad left on his neck, Wyatt Oakes said he went back into the family room to tell his parents he was leaving.

“I said, ‘You shouldn’t hit me. It’s wrong for you to hit me,'” Wyatt Oakes said he told his father, who replied by asking his son if he had a gun, and, “He said he could do what he wants, he could hit me if he wants.”

At that point, Wyatt Oakes said he went to retrieve his rifle, which he had placed nearby. He went back into the room with the rifle and saw his dad coming closer to him quickly. He panicked, he said, and was afraid his dad was going to kill him.

“I had to defend myself,” he said. “I raised the rifle and shot him.”

After the shooting, Wyatt Oakes testified he fled the scene on his motorcycle, eventually ending up in Albuquerque, N.M.

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