WALTERS – A city councilman named in criminal charges of cruelty to animals and obstructing an officer is scheduled for trial in Cotton County District Court on the Sept. 7 misdemeanor docket.
The two misdemeanor charges filed against Bobby Lloyd Nance, 74, of Walters, pertain to alleged incidents that occurred 13 months ago.
He is accused of “maliciously and cruelly” killing a female cat and several kittens “by placing cat food laced with rat poison (brodifacoum) out for animals” at his residence in July 2021. He also is accused of threatening Walters City Manager Douglas Shawn Strange in reference to investigation of the poisoning.
During his arraignment on April 25, Nance was ordered by Associate District Judge Michael Flanagan to have “no contact” with Haleigh Powell “during the pendency of this case or until further order of the court.”
Powell owned the cats that were poisoned, and her complaint to the Walters Police Department ultimately led to the criminal charges that Kyle Cabelka, district attorney for Comanche and Cotton counties, filed against Nance.
If convicted, Nance could be sentenced to a year’s incarceration in a county jail and/or a $1,000 fine for cruelty to animals and/or a $500 fine for obstructing an officer.
Nance pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on April 25 and was released on $500 cash bond posted by Blake Dutcher of Lawton, court records show.
Defense files request
for myriad documents
Nance’s attorneys, J. Blake Dutcher Jr. and Evan D. Watson of Lawton, filed a six-page motion for discovery of all evidence the prosecutors have in the case. Their April 28 request covered 24 specific areas – a lengthy list for a misdemeanor case, including two odd requests.
One item requested is “the record of any past criminal convictions of the defendant,” and a related item was records of “all prior felony convictions of the defendant.” In other words, Nance’s attorneys wanted D.A. Cabelka to furnish them with official records of any criminal convictions their own client, Nance, might have but didn’t inform them about.
They wanted “notice of other crimes, testifying witnesses, and evidence admissible against” Nance.
Other requested documents included law enforcement reports filed in the case, written or recorded statements made by Nance, statements made by Nance to the prosecution or police officers “that pertain to this case,” oral statements made by Nance prior to trial “of which the State and its agents and employees have knowledge,” any signed confessions and written statements and any recorded statements made by Nance, plus copies of sworn statements “obtained from purported witnesses to the alleged crime.”
The defense wanted reports or statements “made by any experts in connection with this case, including physical or mental examinations and scientific tests or experiments or comparisons,” and any books, papers, documents, photographs, “or tangible objects, buildings or places which were obtained from or belong to” Nance.
Other items included a request for Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation or Federal Bureau of Investigation “rap sheet/records check on any witness the State or the Defendant intends to call at trial; “any and all prior criminal convictions of persons the State of Oklahoma … intends to call as witnesses in the trial” against Nance; and all information or material in the prosecution’s possession or control “that would tend to negate the guilt of the accused, or which would tend to reduce the punishment of the accused” should he be convicted.
The defense asked for a list of names and addresses of anyone who “might have favorable testimony on behalf” of Nance, plus all signed or oral statements made by witnesses “who have knowledge of the facts of this case.”
The defense requested the name, Social Security number, address, telephone number, NCIC, OSBI or FBI “rap sheet/records check of any confidential informant(s) used by law enforcement agents or police in the investigation of, or as a witness to, the alleged crime” for which Nance is charged.
Nance’s attorneys also requested all agreements between the prosecution and any of its witnesses or confidential informants that indicate the witnesses or informants obtained “special or lenient treatment in pending or potential criminal cases in exchange for their testimony in this case.”
OSBI investigated
poisoning complaint
Joe Kimmons, a special agent with the OSBI, related in an affidavit that he was assigned to investigate “an allegation of official misconduct.” Nance was accused by Powell, his next-door neighbor, of placing pet food laced with poison in a tub on his front porch. Some of Powell’s cats died shortly afterward, the affidavit states.
After Powell notified the Walters Police Department, WPD Officer Tyler Hedges “came out and took photographs of the tub, and confiscated it” on July 12, 2021, Kimmons wrote.
Hedges also contacted Nance and interviewed him. Nance “advised he had some old cat food that he poured in a tub and left out on his driveway” but “denied putting poison in the cat food.”
City Manager Strange told Kimmons that later that day he received a telephone call from Nance in which the city councilman warned him that investigation of the poisoning episode needed to “stop here on this porch right now. Do you understand what I’m telling you? This needs to stop here, and don’t need to go any further.”
After being read his Miranda rights, Nance was interviewed by Kimmons. Nance “was shown a photograph of the tub with cat food with green pellets in it,” the OSBI agent wrote in his affidavit. Nance told him the tub was “the same one he laid on his porch”; he claimed he “found the tub” a week earlier “out by the curb of his house” and “picked it up and put it closer to his house on the driveway.”
Nance denied telling Strange to “stop the investigation.”
On Jan. 23, 2022, The tub of cat food was submitted to the Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory for analysis. The contents tested positive for brodifacoum, which is used to eradicate rodents.