HOBART - Oct. 7 appears to be the date on which a hearing will be held in Kiowa County District Court on the application of Ethan Patrick Treadwell to withdraw his guilty plea to a felony charge of maiming William Halbert “Junior” Hicks.
Treadwell, 43, admitted during a court hearing June 3 that two and a half years earlier he savagely beat Hicks, 74. Both men live outside of Mountain Park on the same rural road.
Hicks was transported by ambulance to Comanche County Memorial Hospital in Lawton, and from there was airlifted by mediflight to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences medical center in Oklahoma City.
Hicks was placed on a ventilator for several hours and underwent facial surgery. His injuries included traumatic brain injury, loss of 15 of his 32 teeth, an orbital “blowout” of his right eye that required installation of a metal plate in his eye socket, a broken nose and a fractured skull, installation of a brace on one leg and limited use of his left arm.
Subsequently, because the metal plate was causing him pain, Hicks underwent surgery where harvested bone was used to repair his eye socket. While in recovery from that operation he had a stroke and has since been confined to a wheelchair.
Treadwell said he argued with Hicks about a debt and “Hicks came at him with a pair of pliers,” so Treadwell felt he “had to defend himself...” However, evidence presented in court showed Hicks was holding a mobile telephone, not a pair of pliers.
District Attorney Dan Jacobsma initially charged Treadwell with aggravated assault and battery but later amended the complaint to maiming.
On his “blind” plea of guilty to maiming, Treadwell was sentenced Aug. 5 by District Judge Rafe Hall to 10 years in state prison and 15 years suspended.
Attorney Dennis A. Smith of Clinton, who represented Treadwell up to and through his sentencing, asked the court for permission to withdraw as Treadwell’s attorney- of-record on
Aug. 31.
Smith said the last contact he had with Treadwell was on Aug. 11. Smith told the court he visited Treadwell in the Kiowa County Jail, where he helped him review and sign his rules of probation. “During that time [Treadwell] did not express any desire ... to withdraw his plea of guilty or to cause an appeal to be filed.”
Subsequently, though, Smith learned that another attorney, Dustin S. Phillips of Oklahoma City, “filed a motion to withdraw the plea” on Treadwell’s behalf. Since Treadwell has employed new [legal] counsel, Smith wrote that it “necessitates his withdrawal from this case and allow new counsel to pursue any other legal actions” on Treadwell’s behalf. Smith’s application was approved on Sept. 2.
Phillips pointed to a section of state law which “states that Maiming is punishable as a Class C2 felony (punishable by zero to seven years)” in prison. Treadwell’s sentence is “nearly four times the maximum sentence allowable under the current sentencing range.” Phillips contends Treadwell’s plea was entered through “ignorance, inadvertence, influence, or without deliberation.”
In his “Plea of Guilty, Summary of Facts,” Treadwell wrote that he earned a bachelor’s degree. He circled the answer “yes” to the question, “Can you read and understand this form?” He circled “no” to the question, “Are you currently taking any medications or substances which affect your ability to understand these proceedings?”
He circled “yes” to the question, “Do you understand the nature and consequences of this proceeding?”
Treadwell also circled “yes” to the question, “Do you understand you are now entering a plea” of guilty to the charge of maiming? Phillips, though, maintains Treadwell “did not fully understand how a blind plea worked or what the process would be.”
In response to the question, “Do you understand that you will be required to serve a minimum of 50% of the sentence of imprisonment imposed or received prior to becoming eligible for state correctional earned credits toward completion of your sentence or eligibility for parole...?” Treadwell circled the answer “yes.”
District Attorney Jacobsma graduated from Cameron University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, and he earned his law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1997. He is the chief prosecutor for Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Kiowa and Tillman counties.