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  • District Attorney Hollis Thorp and Assistant District Attorney Westline Ritter offer to answer the large crowd's questions in their office after Jason Nelson's sentence to life in prison. (Photo provided by Jim Stout, Alva Review-Courier)

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July 22, 2010

Guilty plea in acid-throwing 1st-degree murder announced

By Kasey Fowler, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

ALVA — An Alva judge refused to explain why a guilty plea in a first-degree murder case was taken in chambers Wednesday instead of in the courtroom packed with people awaiting word.

Jason Michael Nelson, 34, pleaded guilty to causing the death of Nathan Lyon, 18, of Waynoka. Nelson threw acid in Lyon’s face Dec. 28, 2008, and Lyon died of his injuries on Jan. 4, 2009.

“Wherever I am is open court,” said Woods County District Judge Ray Dean Linder. “The attorneys for both sides and the defendant all agreed to do it in chambers. It became an auxiliary courtroom.”

Nelson was sentenced to life in prison on the murder charge.

He appeared with his attorney, Gary Henry, of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System Capital Trial Division, in Linder’s chambers to enter his guilty plea while family and friends of Lyon waited in the courtroom.

Assistant District Attorney Westline Ritter said the courtroom was standing room only with Lyon’s family and friends.

“I know it was disappointing to the victim’s family,” Ritter said. “The state ordered transcripts so the family could read the guilty plea. There was so much support for Nathan Lyon there. He was a football player at Waynoka. They even had football players from other schools there to support him. His sister, Korbi, wore his football jersey from when he was chosen to be on the eight-man all-star team.”

Ritter said the case was set for motions Wednesday.

“Forty-two motions were filed, most were canned. The defendant entered a blind plea. The DA’s office did not make a plea offer yesterday,” she said. “He could have be sentenced to life, life without parole or death. He was sentenced to life. He could be eligible for parole in 38 years. That is just possible, but it doesn’t necessarily mean he will be. If I am still around, I will certainly fight him getting parole.”

Nelson and Lyon met to fight Dec. 28, 2008, after a friend of Lyon testified during Nelson’s preliminary hearing she received a sexually explicit text message from Nelson. The message prompted a group of her friends to call Nelson to meet them north of Waynoka to fight. When they met up, Lyon left the vehicle he was in and Nelson threw acid on him, according to testimony at the hearing.

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