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one Oklahoma A man has been charged with manslaughter after he fired a gun he bought as a Christmas gift after authorities said a stray bullet fired from his yard during target practice struck his neighbor on his porch a few blocks away, killing him.
Cody Wayne Adams, 33, was charged Friday with first-degree manslaughter in Stephens County. He was jailed and later released on $100,000 bail, court records show.
Stephens County deputies were called to a home in north Comanche on Christmas Day after Sandra Phelps was shot and killed while sitting on the front porch of a home holding a child, according to a sheriff’s affidavit. Witnesses said Phelps said “ouch” and then collapsed.
Investigators determined Phelps had suffered a gunshot wound and she was pronounced dead about 20 minutes after officers received a call about the shooting, the affidavit said.
Authorities contacted Adams, who told officers he had recently bought himself a .45-caliber handgun and had been shooting at a can in his yard, about a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) from where Phelps was shot. When deputies told Adams they suspected he had shot Phelps, “Adams became visibly distraught and began crying,” Stephens County Sheriff Capt. Timothy Vann wrote in the affidavit.
A phone message left Monday for Adams’ attorney, Carl Buchholz, was not immediately returned.
court records Adams is scheduled to appear in court on February 25 and has been ordered to have no contact with the victim’s family.
Oklahoma law defines first-degree manslaughter as a homicide committed in the commission of a misdemeanor without the “intention to cause death.” The maximum penalty is life imprisonment. Charging documents say Adams’ use of the firearm showed “willful disregard for the safety of others,” which is a misdemeanor in Oklahoma.