By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – A Canadian County Jail inmate who reported an assassination attempt against a prosecutor has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Isaac Rabago Bolivar, 44, pleaded no contest April 7 to “conveying information known to be false” about an alleged attempt to kill, injure or intimidate Assistant District Attorney Austin Murrey “by means of an explosive, incendiary device or simulated bomb.”
Bolivar, of Tucson, Ariz., was charged with the felony crime in May 2022 in Canadian County District Court.
District Attorney Mike Fields contacted the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) to investigate a possible threat to one of his prosecutors.
Bolivar had been booked into the Canadian County Jail on Jan. 26, 2022, stemming from his August 2019 arrest for aggravated trafficking of illegal drugs. OSBI also investigated that case.
In February 2022, Bolivar falsely reported to Canadian County law enforcement officials a threat by “other named inmates” who he claimed would place an explosive device in the gas tank of Murrey’s vehicle.
Canadian County prosecutors and the defendant – represented by attorney Jason Spanich – recently reached a plea agreement in both the bogus bomb threat and drug trafficking cases.
At an April 7th court hearing, Canadian County Special Judge David H. Halley accepted the no-contest plea and sentenced Bolivar to 20 years in Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ custody.
Bolivar was ordered to serve five years in state prison with the balance of the sentence suspended. He was given credit for time served in the county lock-up.
Bolivar was assessed a $50,000 fine, of which $45,000 was suspended, in the drug trafficking case. He also was ordered to complete a changing offender behavior class.
REPORTING THE ‘PLOT’
ADA Murrey received a letter from inmate Bolivar “stating that he had overheard a plot to assassinate” the prosecutor, according to an affidavit signed by an OSBI special agent.
The OSBI agent on March 3, 2022, interviewed Bolivar, who said he heard two other inmates at the jail “devise a plan” to kill Murrey and possibly his family.
Bolivar claimed he heard his fellow inmates “discuss dropping a ball filled with bleach into Murrey’s gas tank to cause a delayed explosion,” the investigator’s affidavit reads.
“Bolivar also heard (the other inmates) discuss using a drone equipped with a gun and piloted with a cellphone to shoot Murrey as he was walking out from his house.”
Bolivar claimed he was housed in the same jail “pod” as the other two inmates when he heard them making these plans – but pretended he was sleep.
The OSBI agent learned through his investigation into these purported threats that Bolivar had not been in the same jail pod “to overhear these assassination plans,” according to the court affidavit.
