The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered on Jan. 26 that Fears' case be remanded back to Sequoyah County, where Fears' conviction was to be changed to not guilty by reason of insanity and Fears ordered to a mental health facility for examination.
Sequoyah County District Judge Jeff Payton carried out the sentence change and mental health examination order during open court Thursday, as instructed by the appeals court. Fears will now go to the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita for evaluation.
Payton set a hearing to be held at 1:30 p.m. March 15 in Sequoyah County in order for the court to review the findings of the mental health professionals and determine if Fears should remain in the mental health facility.
Fears, now 22, was sentenced in December 2004 to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, as well as nine concurrent life terms and a combined 28 years and two days in prison. He was found guilty by a Sequoyah County jury in September 2004 of 17 felony counts stemming from a 2002 shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of two women and multiple injuries to others.
In July the appeals court overturned the Sequoyah County jury's verdict and ordered that Fears be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Despite a petition filed in July by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson's office asking for a rehearing in Fears' case, the appeals court filed a motion Friday that reaffirmed their decision by a vote of three to two, and denied Edmondson's petition.
The reason for the change in conviction, the appeals court wrote, was because evidence presented at Fears' state trial was insufficient to support Fears' conviction. But not all of the appeals court justices agreed. Two justices, Gary L. Lumpkin, vice presiding judge, and Arlene Johnson, dissented, writing that a retrial was instead the proper course of action.
In the original July order, justices pointed to errors made by former District Attorney Richard Gray's office and an error in instructions to the jury about what a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict would mean.
Security was tight in the uncrowded courtroom, which included several shooting victims and their families.
Doug Kirkley, who helped put Fears behind bars during his state trial in 2004, and Jeff Jones, first assistant district attorney, were on hand for the Thursday hearing.
Rob Nigh, Fears' attorney, filed a motion requesting Fears be sent to Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, but Jones objected that motion and filed a motion to instead send Fears to the center in Vinita.
Jones said district attorney's office research determined that the Norman hospital is not the proper facility to conduct this type of examination, and the proper facility is the Vinita center.
Nigh said from his research Griffin Hospital was the place for people not guilty by reason of insanity, while the Vinita center was for defendants facing a prison sentence.
Jones submitted a model order from the forensic center and told the court that he spoke to the executive director of the forensic center, who told him that the Norman hospital was not the proper setting due to a lack of security at the hospital.
Jones said this type of examination falls under a criminal proceeding, which he noted Nigh's motion also recognized.
Nigh didn't object to Jones' motion for Fears to be sent to the Vinita center.
Jones said, after the hearing, that another hearing will be held in 43 days, and he expects additional hearings in the future. He added that he didn't expect this case to be over.
"We'll do the best we can to protect the people of Sequoyah County," Jones said.
Payton explained after the hearing that two psychiatrists at the Vinita center will evaluate Fears and submit a report in 35 days after Fears has been there for 30 days. A hearing must then be held within 45 days.
According to the examination order, the mental health professionals will determine if Fears is presently mentally ill and a danger to public peace and safety.
Payton said Thursday's hearing was held to amend the judgment and sentence to comply with the order of the appeals court, and then remand Fears to the custody of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health.
Payton makes his decision based on what the mental health experts have to say.
If the court is dissatisfied with the report, Payton said referring to state law, the court may designate one or more mental health examiners to the case.
He said hearings will be held irregularly after the March hearing as Fears is examined and if he or his attorney feels a need for a hearing.
Sequoyah County Sheriff Johnny Philpot said Thursday that Fears will be transported to Vinita as soon as he gets the order, which should be in the next few days. The order was expected to be filed Friday because the court clerk's office, along with the other government offices in the courthouse, were closed Thursday due to inclement weather.
Elva Nunn, the wife of Jimmy Nunn of Muskogee, who was a car salesman who watched Fears shoot and kill Reba Spangler of Fort Smith, Ark., before being shot and wounded himself, was one of the shooting victim's family members to attend the Thursday hearing.
Nunn, who attended the hearing with her son, said her husband did not attend the hearing because he was feeling too much anger and frustration.
"It's hard," Nunn said, crying.
Nunn told another victim that she believes the law should be changed to guilty by reason of insanity, and once the defendant is mentally capable, he or she should go to prison.
"There's no closure," she said of the outcome, adding that the state's money that was spent and all the time that was invested was wasted.
"It's unfair," she said.
Roger Nix, the son of murder victim Patsy Sue Wells, a next-door neighbor who was shot and killed in her front yard during the 2002 shooting spree, sent a letter Thursday to Your TIMES and local legislators, asking that the not guilty by reason of insanity law be changed. After the verdict was first overturned in July, Nix formed the United Victims organization to fight the appeals court.
Nix, who lives in Alabama, wrote Thursday, "As a victim's group we are very saddened to see the justice system in Oklahoma compromised and are struggling for answers."
Nix wrote that he will be preparing a press release later in the week to announce a campaign to change a particular section of Title 43A state law pertaining to the insanity law and ask for a new law of "guilty by reason of insanity."
"Today, Daniel Fears becomes a 'consumer' of the state instead of a murderer. In fact it will be as if a jury of his peers saw fit for this to happen," Nix wrote.
"My hope is that you join our concerns and call an emergency session to discuss ways to modify section 7-101 when dealing with individuals who have committed heinous crimes. As a group, we have no problem with Fears being committed to a mental institution, but want to ensure that he never gets the opportunity to walk in free society."
Nix asked that legislators introduce legislation to change "not guilty by reason of insanity" to "guilty by reason of insanity" and commit the individual to life without the possibility of release from a mental institution.
"Reasonable citizens would expect that anyone capable of committing monstrous crimes should never be considered cured and subsequently released at any time," Nix wrote.
Fears, who was 18 at the time of the shootings, was convicted of two first-degree murder charges, eight counts of shooting with intent to kill, five counts of drive-by shooting, one count of feloniously pointing a firearm, and one count of discharging a firearm with intent to kill.
Patsy Sue Wells of Sallisaw and Spangler were left dead from the shooting spree that began in Fears' father's neighborhood in Sallisaw and ended in Roland, when Fears wrecked his truck and surrendered to police.
