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November 20, 2009

Thornburg appointed attorney for murder case

By BOB GIBBINS



A Park Hill man will be represented by court-appointed counsel when he appears in court next month on a first-degree murder charge.

Gretchen Mosley, of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System’s Sapulpa office, has taken Daniel Prentice Thornburg’s case. Thornburg is charged with the July 2007 shooting death of Ronny Hall, of Muskogee.

Thornburg, 40, was initially used as a state witness against Robert Lee Smallen, who was charged in July 2007 with the homicide. Testimony during Smallen’s first encounter with the court, which ended in a mistrial, indicated Smallen shot Hall in the Horseshoe Bend area. Hall was shot in the head and torso.

A Smallen family member testified at Smallen’s trial that she heard Thornburg say he shot Hall. Thornburg testified against Smallen at the trial. Prosecutors allege Thornburg aided and abetted Smallen in shooting Hall.

All three men came to Cherokee County from Muskogee on the night of the shooting.

Associate District Judge Mark Dobbins has ordered Thornburg, free on a $15,000 bond, to return to court Dec. 7. Assistant District Attorney David Pierce is prosecuting the case. Dobbins and local attorney Angela Jones, who represented Thornburg at his arraignment, questioned the filing of charges against Thornburg two years after the alleged shooting. Pierce said Thornburg has made inconsistent statements about what happened the night of the shooting.

Jones said, at the arraignment that Thornburg’s charges were filed because the DA’s office didn’t get the verdict they wanted against Smallen. Pierce countered that by saying jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous decision because they didn’t believe Thornburg.

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