OKLAHOMA CITY – Two Lawtonians have pleaded guilty to federal charges arising from the murder of a woman who was beaten to death and found in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge last year.
The body of Karon “Dinkers” Connywerdy Smith, 68, a 1972 graduate of Lawton High School, was found a few feet from Oklahoma Highway 49 inside the east entrance to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge on May 17, 2023.
The victim, a Native American, “appeared to have suffered bludgeon wounds to her face and head,” FBI Special Agent Jesse M. Stoda wrote in an affidavit filed in Western District federal court in Oklahoma City. Investigators searched the victim’s home in Lawton on May 19, 2023, and “observed blood consistent with a violent struggle,” Stoda reported.
Connywerdy Smith’s car was observed being driven south of Dallas on May 21, 2023, Stoda said. Texas law enforcement officers attempted to effect a traffic stop but the driver “attempted to flee at a high speed,” Stoda wrote. The vehicle was pursued until it crashed into a lake.
The occupants of the vehicle – Tevin Terrell Semien and his girlfriend, Makayla Nicole Leigh Logsdon – attempted to escape on foot but were caught and taken into custody.
A federal grand jury indicted the two last October. The case was prosecuted in federal court because Smith and Logsdon are enrolled members of the Comanche Nation, Connywerdy Smith was too, and the slaying occurred within the boundaries of Indian Country.
Semien told investigators that Connywerdy Smith was a relative of Logsdon and she asked him to kill Connywerdy Smith because Logsdon “was angry with her.” Semien confessed that he went to the victim’s home, beat her to death with a brick, stuffed the body in the trunk of Connywerdy Smith’s vehicle and disposed of the body in the wildlife refuge, near Medicine Park.
Semien, 29, of Lawton, pleaded guilty April 22 to second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm after a previous felony conviction. He pleaded guilty in Comanche County District Court in December 2022 to conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary and received a five-year suspended prison sentence.
Logsdon, 24, also of Lawton, pleaded guilty Jan. 10 to being an accessory after the fact to murder and admitted helping Semien in his attempt to avoid arrest and prosecution.
At sentencing, Semien faces up to life in federal prison, while Logsdon could be imprisoned for up to 15 years.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Oklahoma City, Dallas, and New Orleans field offices; the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Comanche Nation Police Department; the Comanche County Sheriff’s Office; the Lawton Police Department; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Rice, Texas, Police Department; and the Navarro County, Texas Sheriff’s Office.