Number of female homicide victims, domestic violence-related deaths up in Tulsa in 2014

Correction: A graphic with this story contained an incorrect number of male homicide victims in 2010. There were 47. The graphic has been corrected.

Still wearing blood-covered clothes as he sat on his front porch, Arthur Devaughn told Tulsa police on a cold February night that he had stabbed and killed his mother, Glenda Castaneda, during a dispute over her prescription medication.

Castaneda’s body, with injuries to her face and head, was found in a pool of her own blood in her home in the 6200 block of North Cheyenne Avenue on Feb. 9, 2014.

Castaneda’s killing was the first of 12 homicides the Tulsa Police Department classified as resulting from domestic violence last year. The majority of those victims were women, and the total number of women killed in Tulsa last year — 20 — was a 26-year high, an ignominious figure for a city that’s seen at least 10 women killed in each of the last four years.

Overall, Tulsa’s homicide count declined in 2014 to 54 after 66 people were killed in the city in 2013.

Number of female victims, domestic violence deaths up

Homicide Sgt. Dave Walker said the number of domestic violence-related slayings in 2014 was surprising, and he noted that nine of the 12 deaths occurred in a three-month span between the end of August and November.

Sgt. Stephanie Jackson, who works with the Family Safety Center, housed in the same building as the Police Department, said the key to preventing domestic violence-related homicides is to “get information in (the victim’s) hands before it’s too late.”

Unfortunately, she said, that is easier said than done.

“Mentally, that person has to be at a point where they decide that it’s time for them to leave, that they’re ready to listen to people telling them they should leave,” Jackson said.

“It’s harder than it sounds — a lot harder. They get told repeatedly, every day (by their abuser), ‘No one can help you but me. No one loves you but me. No one cares about you but me,’ and they start to believe it. So when you tell them to leave, they just can’t do it.

“But when they’re ready, we have to make sure they know where to go.”

That’s where places such as the Family Safety Center and agencies such as DVIS/Call Rape come in, Jackson said.

The number of resources available to women and men — TPD data show that three men died during domestic disputes last year — is immense, almost overwhelming, Jackson said.

“Really it comes down to: If I can get you through that door, if I can get you in here and listening to me, I can find a resource to fit your need,” she said.

“Every victim is different. Every victim is in a different situation and has a different need. But hopefully every victim has that ‘aha’ moment, where they say enough is enough.”

Jackson was disappointed in the number of female homicide victims in Tulsa last year, a figure that rose well above the national average.

According to the FBI, 22 percent of homicide victims in 2013 (the most recent data available) were female, but in Tulsa last year, 37 percent of homicide victims were women.

The 20 female victims were the most since at least 1989. Eighteen women were killed in 2013, and 19 were in 2007, according to Tulsa World archives.

Unsolved cases frustrate detectives

Walker said a number of unsolved cases troubled detectives last year, from the fatal shooting of Michael Howell and the stabbing death of Jose Monzon in June to the bludgeoning death of Christen Welch, whose body was found burned and beaten in a house west of downtown in September.

Walker said detectives know as much today as they did in June about Howell’s death — not much.

“We had absolutely nothing that morning, and we have absolutely nothing today,” he said. Howell, 46, was killed just before midnight June 8.

Police arrived at the Bristol Park Apartments, in the 4400 block of South Garnett Road, and found several bullet holes through Howell’s door. When they entered, they found Howell dead inside.

About two weeks later, Monzon, 37, was stabbed outside Club Imperio, 14009 E. 21st St., during what police termed a gang dispute. Six months later, no arrests have been made.

“Monzon(’s killing) should be solved because his kid saw him killed,” Walker said, “but it was one of those things where they go, ‘We’ll solve it ourselves.’”

Welch’s death has been the most perplexing, Walker said. Her body was found in her seemingly abandoned home in the 3500 block of West Easton Street in the early morning hours of Sept. 9. She had been beaten to death, police believe, and a fire that was started in the house burned her body enough to make it unidentifiable at first, Walker said.

“Welch is probably the one that the whole team — the whole unit — has worked the most on since I’ve been here,” said Walker, who’s managed the Homicide Division since 2011. “It’s all over the place.”

While police have yet to discover her killer, the investigation did uncover a juvenile, drug-related burglary ring, a discovery that shocked Walker, an officer for more than 30 years.

“It taught us that we have such a huge drug problem here that it starts as young as 9 years old,” he said.

“They needed to be caught. I don’t know that they’re the ones that killed her. The amount of work we put in there and what little we got as far as saying who’s the killer … we’re a long way from that.”

High-profile killings

On the morning of Aug. 5, 19-year-old Jeremey Lake was doing the same thing he did most days, his aunt Pam Wilkins said: either riding his bicycle or helping her or other family members with chores.

That night, Lake was shot and killed by off-duty Tulsa Police Officer Shannon Kepler, according to police, kicking off a brief manhunt.

Kepler and his wife, fellow Officer Gina Kepler, were arrested hours later. Gina Kepler was released from jail and was not charged, while her husband was charged with first-degree murder.

Prosecutors have said Lake, who was dating the Keplers’ daughter, was targeted by the officer. Police found a juvenile report on Lake with the teenager’s home address handwritten on it inside the Keplers’ home, District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said at a bond hearing for Shannon Kepler.

Kepler’s attorney, Richard O’Carroll, has said Kepler was merely defending himself from Lake, who had a pocket knife in his pocket when he was shot.

Shannon Kepler is awaiting trial.

While Lake’s death possibly was the most high-profile homicide in Tulsa last year, the May 29 killing of 14-year-old April Montano was also shocking.

Montano was one of a handful of passengers in a pickup driven by her stepfather that night when she was shot and killed, police allege by a group of teenagers who were attempting to steal the all-terrain vehicles the family had just spent the day driving.

David Ruble II, 20, Travis Murphy Lozada, 20, and Demonte Wayne Rushing, 22, all of Tulsa, were charged in June with first-degree felony murder and attempted armed robbery in the case.

The manner of Montano’s death is a trend Tulsa has not escaped, Walker said.

“Robberies (with guns) are going up,” Walker said. “The Gang Unit took more guns than they ever have (in 2014). We’re seeing more people with guns, and as long as we see that trend, we’re going to have more street murders.”

Homicide statistics

2014 homicides