Petition Effort Renewed for Investigation into Wynnewood Man's Death

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

PAULS VALLEY, Oklahoma -- A petition drive in Garvin County seeking an investigation into a December death appeared to hit a dead end last week, but there is a new drive to gather more signatures.

For the last two weeks Shannon Kile and others have circulated a petition calling for a grand jury investigation into the death of Wynnewood resident Tom Horton.

The official verdict is Horton killed himself with a shotgun.

"Based on what we have seen, the suicide notion was decided early on and the evidence was sort of manufactured to meet that," said petition sponsor Shannon Kile.

Petition sponsors thought they needed 500 valid signatures. They say they collected close to 700 of them, but when they brought them to the court house, the petition ran aground.

First, the Garvin County Election Board refused to count the signatures because the sheets did not contain the names of the petition circulators. Then, Judge Candace Blaylock said that state law requires over 1700 signatures, not 500.

Pauls Valley attorney Larry Balcerak plans to appeal Blaylock's ruling, but he says the judge may take matters into her own hands.

"We believe she may call a grand jury on her own if we show we've gotten close to the 1718 signatures," Balcerak said.

So petition backers are redoubling their efforts. They've placed ads with mail-in petitions in county newspapers, and they're setting up a Web site for online signing.

"We're pulling out all the stops," Kile said. "We're going to have tents set up in centralized locations so people can see the tent and come and sign the petition there."

They know the clock is ticking, and they're running out of time. The petition sponsors have until August 24 to collect enough signatures.

More on News9.com:

- Petition Denied for Grand Jury Investigation into Wynnewood Man's Death

- Dead Man's Friends, Family Provide Petition for Investigation

- Man's Death Ruled Suicide, Friends, Family Say Homicide