Correction

A breakout box with this story originally misrepresented the process by which a civil case against Kepler was dismissed Thursday. The breakout box has been corrected.

Former Tulsa Police Officer Shannon Kepler spent a significant part of his three hours on the stand during his murder trial Thursday defending his decision not to stay on scene to talk to investigators after he fatally shot his daughter’s new boyfriend.

As he did in two previous trials, Kepler claimed he shot 19-year-old Jeremey Lake in self-defense after seeing him carrying a handgun.

Closing arguments will begin Friday morning in the third first-degree murder trial in about eight months for Kepler, 57, related to the Aug. 5, 2014, shooting death of Lake outside the home of the teen’s aunt in the 200 block of North Maybelle Avenue. He faced trials in November and February, but District Judge Sharon Holmes declared a mistrial both times due to hung juries.

Kepler told lead defense attorney Richard O’Carroll on Thursday he was confident he saw Lake carrying a semiautomatic weapon when he fired two shots at him with his revolver, which was an old Tulsa police service weapon. He said he first attempted to de-escalate the situation with Lake, whom he alleged was verbally and physically antagonistic during their brief interaction.

Multiple officers who investigated the shooting, as well as witnesses to the immediate aftermath, previously testified about not finding a gun either on or near Lake’s body. However, O’Carroll has suggested one of those witnesses took a gun from Lake’s body and possibly dumped it in a Tulsa police interview room trash can, where one was found a day later.

Holmes has barred O’Carroll from eliciting testimony about the gun, as testing of the weapon did not turn up any evidence that would associate it with the case.

When Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray subjected Kepler to a lengthy cross-examination Thursday evening, the former officer said he fled the scene after the shooting in part because he did not want to be taken in for questioning without an attorney present. He also expressed concern about his safety because spectators began gathering around the shooting site and he ran out of bullets in the revolver.

He admitted he did not call for medical assistance but said it was clear from his observations someone else did.

Kepler said he and his wife, Gina Kepler, met up later that night and worked to contact an attorney before they went to the police station downtown with the attorney to turn Kepler in. Gina Kepler was arrested on an accessory complaint in the case but was not charged.

He said he was anxious about giving statements because the shooting occurred while he was off-duty. Kepler said his wife reminded him that officers involved in off-duty incidents typically aren’t afforded assistance with legal representation by the Fraternal Order of Police or a related waiting period before an investigator takes a statement.

The remark about interrogations led to a discussion about Kepler’s knowledge of what are commonly called Miranda rights, which Tulsa police officers typically read to suspects from a printed card.

“You were a police officer for 25 years. Do you not know the Miranda warnings by heart?” Gray asked.

“I do not,” Kepler said, prompting Gray to list some of the rights given to detainees, including the right to have an attorney accompany someone before they are questioned in a criminal investigation.

Kepler told O’Carroll he went to the home of Lake’s aunt in hopes of finding his daughter, Lisa Kepler, and taking her back to the Keplers’ east Tulsa residence. Lisa Kepler had posted on Facebook earlier in the day about being in a relationship with Lake, and Shannon Kepler said he used that information to help him find Lake’s address and background.

On June 30, Lisa Kepler testified about her parents taking her to a homeless shelter near Lake’s home because they kicked her out over conflicts about her lifestyle. Although Shannon Kepler told O’Carroll and Gray that Gina Kepler primarily handled monitoring their daughter after dropping her off, he said he became worried when he searched for information about Lake in a Tulsa Police internal database.

He conceded using the database for personal reasons was a violation of department policy, but maintained he was willing to break rules in order to protect his daughter.

When asked why he didn’t involve other officers in the situation, Kepler told O’Carroll he wanted to keep it within the family because he “didn’t want to air my dirty laundry out to everybody.” He also said he did not seek a violent confrontation with anyone when he decided the night of Aug. 5 to drive by the area to check up on her, but said he took the revolver for protection based on his belief Lake’s house was in a high-crime area.

However, he told Gray, “If I could go in a time machine, I’d never go over there again.” Kepler called the matter “a unique situation” because he was an off-duty police officer at the time, to which Gray said, “Yes. Instead of being called there, you chose to go there” to Lake’s home.

“I wanted to tell her the situation she was in and the person she was with was dangerous,” Kepler responded. The defense has implied Lake may have been under the influence of K2, or synthetic marijuana, during his interaction with Kepler, but a toxicology screen did not show he had drugs in his system.

However, the screen does not look for the presence of K2 due to its myriad available compounds. Kepler said under cross-examination that he didn’t notice Lake walking oddly or slurring his speech, but said he was not close enough to see whether his eyes could have given clues about Lake’s state.

Kepler was the final witness the defense presented for its case and was on the stand for about three hours after jurors listened to character evidence from two former co-workers, a neighbor and a childhood friend.

Prosecutors rested their first-degree murder case against Kepler on Thursday afternoon following statements from Dr. Mary Goolsby, a medical examiner who determined Lake’s death was a homicide caused by two gunshot wounds to the chest and neck.