By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – A jury trial is set this May for a Yukon man charged with shooting to death a convenience store clerk.
George Lorenz Way, 22, faces the death penalty or life in prison on felony charges of first-degree murder and robbery with a weapon filed in Canadian County District Court.
Way is being held without bond at the Canadian County Jail. He was booked Sept. 3, 2020, after being arrested in the shooting death of 7-Eleven clerk Laura Taylor, 30.
Canadian County prosecutors allege Way used a 9 mm Taurus handgun to shoot Taylor multiple times, causing Taylor to suffer “certain mortal wounds from which mortal wounds Laura Taylor did languish and die.”
The defendant on Dec. 1, 2021, waived his right to a preliminary hearing. A motion hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, March 17 before Canadian County District Judge Jack D. McCurdy.
A jury trial is due to begin Monday, May 2 on McCurdy’s docket.
Way’s attorney Kent Bridge on March 7 filed a demurrer claiming the prosecution’s evidence against his client is “totally insufficient to sustain the allegations set forth in the charge.”
The defense counsel argues the information filed with the charges “fails to state facts”, alleges “only conclusions” and is “vague and indefinite.”
Attorney Bridge also filed a motion to suppress, asking the judge to conduct a hearing “to determine the voluntariness of any and all statements made by the defendant while in custody, and/or any statements obtained from the defendant as a result of police interrogation in violation” of the Fourth Fifth, and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions.
The defense has submitted a motion for discovery and their list of potential witnesses and exhibits for the trial.
Defendant Way lived at an apartment complex in the 11500 block of S.W. 15th near the store where Taylor was killed.
The victim was working at 7-Eleven, 1601 S. Mustang Road, about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 3, 2020, when she was shot in the store’s parking lot.
Way had allegedly used the gun to rob money from the store where Taylor was working.
The clerk followed Way outside of the store where she was shot and killed as Way fled on foot, according to an Oklahoma City police report.
Taylor, of Yukon, was pronounced dead at the scene.
ANOTHER CHARGE
The defendant faces a felony aggravated assault and battery charge in a separate incident that occurred Sept. 6, 2021, at the Canadian County Jail.
Prosecutors allege Way and another accused first-degree murderer, Javier Devonte Lewis, struck a third inmate “with force and violence” causing injuries including a compression fracture of the thoracic vertebra.
The crime was investigated by the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office; formal charges were filed Nov. 4, 2021.
The aggravated assault and battery charge is punishable by up to five years in state prison or one year in the county jail.
