The Sequoyah County District Court jury docket for March has been set and includes two murder trials and various civil cases.

The first-degree murder trial of a Roland woman accused of the April 2000 death of her six-year-old son is set to begin March 8 in Sallisaw.

Rebecca Pettit's trial was originally set for September, but District Judge John Garrett granted a continuance at the request of the defense to allow for further DNA testing to be conducted.

Pettit, 36, was released on $100,000 bond Dec. 21, 2000. She has awaited trial since her April 17, 2000, arrest.

Pettit is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her six-year-old son, David Adam Andy Ray Pettit.

Records show that the medical examiner determined that the boy died from asphyxiation. Pettit was found lying beside the boy on her bed in her mobile home in Roland. The boy was dead and Pettit appeared to be unconscious with cuts on her wrists and ankle, according to court records.

Second Murder Trial

A Vian man will face trial March 29 for the May 31, 2003, stabbing death of his father.

Schuyler "Woody" Scarborough, 39, is charged with the first-degree murder of Chester Scarborough, 69.

Police found Chester Scarborough lying in a pool of blood in the living room of his Vian home. There were blood splatters along the walls of the living room, court records state.

A witness told police that Woody and Chester Scarborough began arguing on the front porch over Woody Scarborough's dog, and the altercation continued inside.

According to court records, another witness said that he saw Woody Scarborough push the elder Scarborough down at the doorway of the residence. The witness said he stopped to help Chester Scarborough, but became scared and left when he opened the screen door to the residence and saw Woody Scarborough standing over Chester Scarborough and striking him around the head.

Woody Scarborough was located several days later at an apartment in Vian. According to court records, he allegedly told Vian police that he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the stabbing, and he did not know that his father was dead until he heard it on the news. He also told police that he had thrown the knife that he had used under the front porch of the residence.

The state medical examiner's office in Tulsa reported that there were 13 puncture wounds in Chester Scarborough's chest, neck, and head, and one wound went through the aorta.

The medical examiner explained that there were no defensive wounds on his arms or hands because the elder Scarborough was in poor physical condition. He also had a leg brace on his right leg at the time of the stabbing, according to court records.

Woody Scarborough has five prior convictions, court records state. The convictions include second-degree murder on Feb. 3, 1988; uttering a forged instrument on Aug. 20, 1995; feloniously pointing and felonious possession of a firearm on Feb. 15, 2000; and first-degree burglary on Oct. 20, 2000.