(First of two parts)
Ten men and two women on a McCurtain County District Court jury watched intently Tuesday at something jurors rarely see – a fatality shooting captured on video.
It was the initial day of the first-degree murder trial of De’Monte Tre’Shawn Bell of Idabel, and it’s ex
Liz Griffith confers with client De’Monte Bell during a courtroom recess. (Staff photo)
The shooting occurred just after midnight on the morning of March 23, 2025, between the east gas pumps of the
Because of security cameras at several businesses and at Broken Bow Schools, jurors were able to watch a gold-colored GMC pickup leave the E-Z Mart Store and head north, with a black Ford Expedition following behind.
The GMC reached Fast Lane, then pulled into the parking area and turned around. The Expedition did the same.
Then the GMC headed south, back to the E-Z Mart, where it pulled in between the gas pumps and the highway.
Colton Butler, 27, started to get out of the passenger side when a large black man walked up and fired a gun.
The man can only be seen from behind. Butler took a few steps southward, turned toward the man, and more shots were fired.
Butler ran south, and more shots were fired.
Soon afterwards, state trooper Jake Phillips was flagged down by two men near the End of Trail Motel. They said their friend had been shot.
Phillips turned on his emergency lights and blocked traffic. Near a white retaining wall, he found a man on his back, bleeding. He had been shot multiple times in the chest and torso area, it appears.
Phillips got out his medical bag.
Broken Bow officer Zane Mann pulled up and began applying gauze to stop the bleeding.
Jurors saw what happened because Mann had activated his body cam.
In the courtroom, Butler’s grandmother quietly moaned aloud as she watched her grandson being treated on the video screen.
The sound wasn’t loud enough for the jury or the judge to hear.
Butler’s friends could be heard yelling nearby: “Stay with us!”
Emergency medical technicians arrived, and Butler was loaded onto a gurney.
Phillips asked Butler’s friends, “Do you know who shot him?” They said no, they did not, but they pointed southward to show the direction a black SUV fled afterwards.
The second person to testify was district attorney investigator Whit Kent, who read the preliminary hearing testimony of Broken Bow officer Mann, as Mann had died in a motorcycle accident in May.
Mann had testified that he saw three wounds on Butler. He applied gauze and also performed CPR.
After EMTs took Butler in the ambulance, Mann taped off the scene, began getting witness statements, and then walked up the sidewalk to the E-Z Mart Store, where he found a pool of blood on the east side of the pumps, plus several shell casings from a 9 mm gun.
He also found a cell phone and a pink hat. He placed the cell phone into evidence.
Jurors also heard from Broken Bow investigator Christina Freeman, then from former E-Z Mart clerk Tabitha Cox, who said a 12-year-old girl, her grandmother and two young men were in the store when the gunshots could be heard.
The jury heard several gunshots gathered on the store’s indoor cameras. There were several, then a brief gap, then three more.
“Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Cox yelled. Then she directed customers to the back of the store for their safety.
Cox said she quit her job the next day because she cannot handle violence.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Chad Barnett told of searching the gold GMC truck that night, since it might contain bullet fragments.
He also obtained several videos from businesses and the school and went to the hospital, where he photographed Butler’s body.
A state forensic pathologist testified that Butler died from multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the front and to one arm, and three entering from his back.
Assistant District Attorney Jeff Mixon emphasized that Butler had been shot multiple times in the back.
One of the bullets had caused Butler’s left lung to collapse, which then filled with blood. That event, which cut his ability to breathe by half, and the extreme loss of blood likely killed him, though bullets had also damaged one kidney and his liver, the pathologist told jurors.
Over defense attorney Liz Griffith’s objection, undersheriff Johnny Voss told jurors the shooter in the video looked like “De’Monte Bell from behind.”
This is a case with a huge amount of video footage.
OSBI special agent Devin Black, who is also a professional media producer, had made a composite video of portions of the videos, to which Griffith strongly objected.
Griffith said the sound of the gunfire, which can only be heard on E-Z Mart’s indoor cameras, can be heard during the video of the shooting outside, though the outdoor cameras had no audio.
She claimed Black’s editing was done in a way favorable to the state’s case.
District Judge Emily Maxwell said the video footage from the store’s 12 indoor cameras is sometimes confusing, and Black’s composite makes it more understandable.
She allowed jurors to see the composite footage in the courtroom, but took under advisement whether they will be able to see it again in the jury room.
However, all other videos will indeed be made available to jurors during their deliberations, she said, along with a laptop computer to view them.
Griffith seemed to be in favor of this, while Mixon had concerns.
Griffith appears to be heading toward self-defense as her client’s defense. She claims, for example, that when Butler got out of the truck, he had a hand in his pocket.
She wants jurors to be able to carefully and repeatedly view the shooting footage because it could possibly help her defense.
Mixon was concerned whether jurors would be able to sort out all the 26 inside and outside cameras at the E-Z Mart Store alone.
Griffith also told the court she expects to recall OSBI agent Barnett today to discuss what was gathered from Butler’s cell phone.
The state did not ask questions about that during its questioning of the agent, so Griffith was barred from asking about it during cross-examination.
