Parents Say OKC Murder Suspect Threatened Their Daughter Months Ago

Parents say Brandon Newell was threatening their daughter’s life, just months before he allegedly killed a man.

Newell was arrested last week for allegedly murdering 24-year-old Isaac Herrera in Oklahoma City.

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Siobhan and Patrick Long say there were warning signs of this in October, when Newell allegedly sent death threats to their daughter.

“He's going to cut off her head. He's going to laugh while he watches the life drain out of her body,” Patrick said, paraphrasing the messages he says he found on his daughter’s phone from Newell.

The Longs say they took the threatening text messages to authorities. Both their daughter and Newell were minors at the time.

“I brought this to the attention of both the school and the police department. They said they were going to act,” Patrick said.

Siobhan and Patrick say the district, Putnam City, transferred Newell to a different school weeks after the report was made. The Longs say Newell and their daughter were classmates at Putnam City High School.

The Warr Acres Police Department wrote a report and collected all the text messages between both parties.

Deputy Chief John Gray wasn’t on this particular case, but spoke to News 9 on behalf of the department.

“From what I read in the report, both sides were kind of to blame, so the officer contacted parents to both sides,” Gray said.

The department ultimately left discipline to the parents, and charges were not filed. Gray does not know of any follow-up psychological services that were offered to either party.

“We can't determine what's going to happen in the future. We do the best that we can at the time with the information that we have at the time,” Gray said.

The Longs however, believe the murder of Herrera could have been prevented if someone would have paid more attention.

“It’s really upsetting because I could have lost my daughter three months ago. I mean, I really felt like, ‘Am I doing the right thing? They’re obviously not taking this serious maybe I’m overreacting,’” Siohban said.

Putnam City Schools were on holiday Monday and could not provide official comment. A school spokesperson says he is looking into it.