FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 3, 2024

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office had two criminal trials in District Court last week, both resulting in guilty verdicts by the juries.

On June 26, 2024, a jury found Brandon Taylor guilty of three counts of Indecent or Lewd Acts with a Child Under 16. The jury recommended a sentence of 25 years for each count to be served in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

The Midwest City Police Department investigated the allegations that Taylor touched a nine-year-old child inappropriately. The victim disclosed what happened to her to a relative in November 2022 because the defendant’s girlfriend was pregnant and she didn’t want the same abuse to happen to the baby. Based on the investigation by the Midwest City Police Department, criminal felony charges were filed on January 5, 2023.

On June 27, 2024, a jury found Marc Owens guilty of Count 1: Murder in the First Degree and, Count 2: Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance – Marijuana. A third count was dismissed by the State. The jury recommended a sentence of Life for Count 1 and one year for Count 2.

Owens and codefendant Lamontta Taylor were charged with the July 24, 2022, shooting death of Michael Crawford. Oklahoma City Police Detectives were called to the 2800 block of SW 42nd Street to respond to a shooting. At the scene, they learned that Owens and Crawford were standing in a parking lot together just before Crawford was shot a total of three times. Crawford was able to call 9-1-1 before he lost consciousness. Witnesses said the shooter, who was unidentified at the time, fled the scene in Crawford’s vehicle. Text messages between the defendants and cell phone tower data were able to help detectives link Owens and Taylor to the homicide. Following the investigation by OCPD, criminal felony charges were filed on August 26, 2022.

Lamontta Taylor is scheduled to go to trial on one count of Murder in the First Degree in August 2024. Brandon Taylor and Marc Owens will both be formally sentenced by the Court on July 30, 2024.

District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna would like to thank the jurors for their service, as well as the witnesses who testified, law enforcement for their thorough investigation of these crimes and the Assistant District Attorney’s that prepared the cases for prosecution.

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