Roedel receives 20-year sentence in shooting death
The man charged with the shooting death of a Kingfisher teen last year has pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
Patrick Eugene Roedel, 19, was sentenced to 20 years with the Department of Corrections Tuesday in Kingfisher County District Court.
All but the first four years of the sentence are suspended.
The sentence was handed down by Associate District Judge Lance Schneiter after Roedel pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter.
He was charged with the crime last May in the April shooting death of Luke Strickland, 15.
Roedel was 18 at the time.
According to a Kingfi sher Police Department report, Roedel ran inside a residence at 1006 S. Ninth St. to request help after the April 7 shooting and initially told police that Strickland accidentally shot himself in the chest while handling a pistol in Roedel’s pickup truck.
Roedel told police at the time that he and the victim had been driving on rural roads and shooting the gun and then drove back into town where they were going to pick up a teenage friend at her residence.
According to an affidavit signed by Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Kevin Woodward, Roedel allegedly changed his story in a second interview with Woodward and Assistant Police Chief Travis Gray.
During the interview, Roedel was confronted with video retrieved from the victim’s phone depicting Roedel pointing the gun toward the camera.
Woodward and Gray also told Roedel that the location of the spent shell casing was not consistent with his story that the victim shot himself, according to the affidavit.
Roedel then allegedly admitted he unloaded the pistol and pretended to shoot at Strickland while the victim was making a video with his phone, according to the affidavit.
Roedel allegedly said that sometime after he pulled up to the residence at 1006 S. Ninth St., where he later ran for help, he reloaded the gun and chambered a round. He allegedly told Woodward and Gray that he thought the safety was on when he pointed the gun at the victim and pulled the trigger, according to the affidavit. Roedel said Strickland opened the door and got out of the truck before falling to the ground. When Roedel couldn’t get him back into the truck, he ran to the residence for help, he allegedly told Woodward and Gray, A resident at the house called 911, while her husband ran out to perform CPR on the victim, according to the police report. Strickland was transported by ambulance to the local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to Woodward’s affidavit. According to the criminal information filed by Assistant District Attorney Jimmy Bunn Jr., Roedel was charged with first-degree manslaughter for acting without premeditation to cause Strickland’s death under two alternative state statutes.