osugrad1978
05-07-2006, 02:49 PM
By Ron Jackson
The Oklahoman
How did this pistol get into the hands of an Ada killer?
ADA - Serial number: P12267735.
A harmless etching on a Hi-Point 9mm, semi-automatic handgun with a not-so-harmless history. The gun was sold at least four times and used to kill two people less than three months after manufacture.
Today, the gun sits in storage with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The last person to presumably purchase the gun was Jerry Don Savage, and Pontotoc County Undersheriff Joe Glover wants to know who sold it to him.
It's the gun that killed Ada teen Caitlin Wooten.
Federal law forbade Savage to have a firearm based on a protective order filed against him, but that law is easily circumvented. Only gun dealers are legally required to document the sale of a firearm. Private citizens can sell guns to anyone at anytime -- no questions asked.
The end result is the widespread, illegal distribution of guns into the wrong hands.
Thousands of these weapons are confiscated by various law enforcement agencies each year in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City police destroy about 2,000 firearms a year at a steel mill in Sand Springs -- guns without a "rightful owner."
Perhaps that is likely the fate of P12267735, which was obtained by Savage shortly after making $200,000 bail for allegedly kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, Donna Wooten, at gunpoint with a different pistol. Savage then used the gun to abduct Wooten's 16-year-old daughter, Caitlin, on the afternoon of Sept. 23 from the Ada High School parking lot in an attempt to win back her mother.
Later that day, in a lonely patch of woods eight miles west of town, Savage shot the teen in the back of the head. He then turned the gun on himself in an act of suicide.
Faye Francis Sliger, who prosecutors claim allowed Savage to borrow his pickup, faces a first-degree murder charge. Karen Maureen Dial is charged with conspiring to commit a felony because prosecutors say she was present when Sliger loaned the truck.
Investigators wonder if others should be charged.
"Where did he (Savage) get the gun?" asked Clinton Sutton, an investigator for the Pontotoc County district attorney's office. "Did someone just sell it to him by chance, or was there someone else involved?
"We may never know the answer."
A cheap weapon
A reporter once described the Hi-Points Firearms manufacturing plant as "three nondescript buildings" near a rural highway in the rolling hills of central Ohio -- "the stubby prefabricated kind that dot the landscape from one town to another across the United States.
Experts have called Hi-Point semi-automatic handguns the cheapest in America.
"You can probably get one of these guns for anywhere from $130 to $160," Glover said. "They're cheap. That's why they're so popular. They are a 'Saturday Night Special' in the classic sense."
Hi-Point Firearms owner Thomas Deeb, who did not respond to messages left by The Oklahoman, probably wouldn't argue with Glover's assessment.
"I didn't have a lot of money growing up to buy firearms, and I wanted working people to be able to afford a weapon without having to take out a mortgage on their house," Deeb told The Buffalo News in a June 2005 interview. "Poor people need protection more than other people."
The dark side of Deeb's product was revealed three months after he spoke these words with the murder of Caitlin Wooten. The linchpin wasn't the gunmaker, though, but a deranged Savage.
Dark journey
Lineage of the gun's ownership is still under investigation, although the undersheriff suspects police already might know how Savage illegally came into possession of the gun. The lone hitch? The gun's last known owner prior to Savage -- Aaron Burns of Shawnee -- says he doesn't remember who bought the gun from him.
Glover is certain of only one thing. It took only 50 days for the handgun to travel from a gun-manufacturing plant in Mansfield, Ohio, to the scene of the murder in Ada.
"Think about that," Glover said. "The turn around on that gun was amazing."
Wooten's murder weapon left the manufacturing plant Aug. 4, 2005, and traveled 139 miles to MKS Supply Inc. in Dayton, Ohio. Four days later, the gun was shipped in a box to the now-defunct Alamo Leather Goods Inc. in San Antonio, Texas.
"We never even opened the boxes," said Don Ervin, who owned Alamo Leather Goods for 24 years before retiring in December. "So we never even saw the guns. The Hi-Point? I could sell as many as I could handle.
"I'd get them for $85, and sell them for $100."
The gun that killed Wooten sat in Ervin's warehouse for two days.
Finally, it was shipped in an order to R&D Pawn Shop in Tecumseh. Owner Ray Flowers is fond of the Hi-Point for one reason.
"I can sell them as fast as I get them," Flowers said. "I can always find someone willing to buy one."
Gun-collector Roy Whitefield of Tecumseh is one such long-time customer. Whitefield, 74, is always on the lookout for a gun and a deal. On Aug. 24, he inspected the new Hi-Point handgun in the R&D Pawn Shop and purchased it for "about $109."
"I've been buying and selling guns for over 30 years," Whitefield said. "I like to go into pawn shops. Every once in a while you'll find a real good deal where someone doesn't know what they have.
"This particular gun I bought with the intention of reselling it."
Aaron Burns, an acquaintance from nearby Shawnee, alerted Whitefield to the type of gun he was looking for -- a Hi-Point 9mm semi-automatic handgun. Whitefield didn't ask any questions.
"I had dealt with Aaron before," Whitefield said. "So I didn't think anything about it. I turned around the next day and sold it to him for $120."
Dead end
Burns, 55, has been on disability for as long as he can remember.
Burns said in August 2005 he was receiving a disability check for $900 a month and $10 a month from the Human Services Department in food stamps.
"Do you know what $10 will buy at the store?" Burns asked sarcastically. "Nothing."
So Burns is always looking for a way to make a few extra bucks. Guns have always been his best money-maker.
"I'd buy a gun and then go out and test fire it," said Burns, an avid member of the Tecumseh Shooting Club. "If I liked it, I'd keep it in my collection. If I didn't, I'd sell it."
Burns often uses a local "Swap Shop" radio show to advertise his goods.
"I'd call up and say, 'I have a Hi-Point 9mm, semi-automatic handgun. If you are interested call ...' " Burns said. "Hang up the phone, and bing, bing, the calls start coming in. Instantly.
"I sold that (Wooten) gun off that radio show for $150. But I can't tell you who I sold it to. I don't remember."
Pictures of Jerry Don Savage have failed to jar Burns' memory.
"I think he's telling the truth," said Sutton, the investigator. "He obviously didn't know who he sold the gun to. It was probably just a one-time meeting, cash transaction."
Glover suspects that buyer might have been Savage.
"Jerry worked for the state highway department," Glover said. "And he was working in the Shawnee area at the time Burns sold the gun. That's probably how easy it happened, ending up illegally in the hands of Jerry Savage."
The wrong hands. Wrong and deadly.
************************************************** *******
It seems the D'Oh wants to launch off on a crusade on face-to-face sales requiring processing through a dealer as is done in some other states. That seems to be the only point for this article.
Article link: http://newsok.com/print.php?article=1837076
(requires registration)
The Oklahoman
How did this pistol get into the hands of an Ada killer?
ADA - Serial number: P12267735.
A harmless etching on a Hi-Point 9mm, semi-automatic handgun with a not-so-harmless history. The gun was sold at least four times and used to kill two people less than three months after manufacture.
Today, the gun sits in storage with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The last person to presumably purchase the gun was Jerry Don Savage, and Pontotoc County Undersheriff Joe Glover wants to know who sold it to him.
It's the gun that killed Ada teen Caitlin Wooten.
Federal law forbade Savage to have a firearm based on a protective order filed against him, but that law is easily circumvented. Only gun dealers are legally required to document the sale of a firearm. Private citizens can sell guns to anyone at anytime -- no questions asked.
The end result is the widespread, illegal distribution of guns into the wrong hands.
Thousands of these weapons are confiscated by various law enforcement agencies each year in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City police destroy about 2,000 firearms a year at a steel mill in Sand Springs -- guns without a "rightful owner."
Perhaps that is likely the fate of P12267735, which was obtained by Savage shortly after making $200,000 bail for allegedly kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, Donna Wooten, at gunpoint with a different pistol. Savage then used the gun to abduct Wooten's 16-year-old daughter, Caitlin, on the afternoon of Sept. 23 from the Ada High School parking lot in an attempt to win back her mother.
Later that day, in a lonely patch of woods eight miles west of town, Savage shot the teen in the back of the head. He then turned the gun on himself in an act of suicide.
Faye Francis Sliger, who prosecutors claim allowed Savage to borrow his pickup, faces a first-degree murder charge. Karen Maureen Dial is charged with conspiring to commit a felony because prosecutors say she was present when Sliger loaned the truck.
Investigators wonder if others should be charged.
"Where did he (Savage) get the gun?" asked Clinton Sutton, an investigator for the Pontotoc County district attorney's office. "Did someone just sell it to him by chance, or was there someone else involved?
"We may never know the answer."
A cheap weapon
A reporter once described the Hi-Points Firearms manufacturing plant as "three nondescript buildings" near a rural highway in the rolling hills of central Ohio -- "the stubby prefabricated kind that dot the landscape from one town to another across the United States.
Experts have called Hi-Point semi-automatic handguns the cheapest in America.
"You can probably get one of these guns for anywhere from $130 to $160," Glover said. "They're cheap. That's why they're so popular. They are a 'Saturday Night Special' in the classic sense."
Hi-Point Firearms owner Thomas Deeb, who did not respond to messages left by The Oklahoman, probably wouldn't argue with Glover's assessment.
"I didn't have a lot of money growing up to buy firearms, and I wanted working people to be able to afford a weapon without having to take out a mortgage on their house," Deeb told The Buffalo News in a June 2005 interview. "Poor people need protection more than other people."
The dark side of Deeb's product was revealed three months after he spoke these words with the murder of Caitlin Wooten. The linchpin wasn't the gunmaker, though, but a deranged Savage.
Dark journey
Lineage of the gun's ownership is still under investigation, although the undersheriff suspects police already might know how Savage illegally came into possession of the gun. The lone hitch? The gun's last known owner prior to Savage -- Aaron Burns of Shawnee -- says he doesn't remember who bought the gun from him.
Glover is certain of only one thing. It took only 50 days for the handgun to travel from a gun-manufacturing plant in Mansfield, Ohio, to the scene of the murder in Ada.
"Think about that," Glover said. "The turn around on that gun was amazing."
Wooten's murder weapon left the manufacturing plant Aug. 4, 2005, and traveled 139 miles to MKS Supply Inc. in Dayton, Ohio. Four days later, the gun was shipped in a box to the now-defunct Alamo Leather Goods Inc. in San Antonio, Texas.
"We never even opened the boxes," said Don Ervin, who owned Alamo Leather Goods for 24 years before retiring in December. "So we never even saw the guns. The Hi-Point? I could sell as many as I could handle.
"I'd get them for $85, and sell them for $100."
The gun that killed Wooten sat in Ervin's warehouse for two days.
Finally, it was shipped in an order to R&D Pawn Shop in Tecumseh. Owner Ray Flowers is fond of the Hi-Point for one reason.
"I can sell them as fast as I get them," Flowers said. "I can always find someone willing to buy one."
Gun-collector Roy Whitefield of Tecumseh is one such long-time customer. Whitefield, 74, is always on the lookout for a gun and a deal. On Aug. 24, he inspected the new Hi-Point handgun in the R&D Pawn Shop and purchased it for "about $109."
"I've been buying and selling guns for over 30 years," Whitefield said. "I like to go into pawn shops. Every once in a while you'll find a real good deal where someone doesn't know what they have.
"This particular gun I bought with the intention of reselling it."
Aaron Burns, an acquaintance from nearby Shawnee, alerted Whitefield to the type of gun he was looking for -- a Hi-Point 9mm semi-automatic handgun. Whitefield didn't ask any questions.
"I had dealt with Aaron before," Whitefield said. "So I didn't think anything about it. I turned around the next day and sold it to him for $120."
Dead end
Burns, 55, has been on disability for as long as he can remember.
Burns said in August 2005 he was receiving a disability check for $900 a month and $10 a month from the Human Services Department in food stamps.
"Do you know what $10 will buy at the store?" Burns asked sarcastically. "Nothing."
So Burns is always looking for a way to make a few extra bucks. Guns have always been his best money-maker.
"I'd buy a gun and then go out and test fire it," said Burns, an avid member of the Tecumseh Shooting Club. "If I liked it, I'd keep it in my collection. If I didn't, I'd sell it."
Burns often uses a local "Swap Shop" radio show to advertise his goods.
"I'd call up and say, 'I have a Hi-Point 9mm, semi-automatic handgun. If you are interested call ...' " Burns said. "Hang up the phone, and bing, bing, the calls start coming in. Instantly.
"I sold that (Wooten) gun off that radio show for $150. But I can't tell you who I sold it to. I don't remember."
Pictures of Jerry Don Savage have failed to jar Burns' memory.
"I think he's telling the truth," said Sutton, the investigator. "He obviously didn't know who he sold the gun to. It was probably just a one-time meeting, cash transaction."
Glover suspects that buyer might have been Savage.
"Jerry worked for the state highway department," Glover said. "And he was working in the Shawnee area at the time Burns sold the gun. That's probably how easy it happened, ending up illegally in the hands of Jerry Savage."
The wrong hands. Wrong and deadly.
************************************************** *******
It seems the D'Oh wants to launch off on a crusade on face-to-face sales requiring processing through a dealer as is done in some other states. That seems to be the only point for this article.
Article link: http://newsok.com/print.php?article=1837076
(requires registration)
