No decisions yet in Teague shooting case

CORDELL – Interested parties on both sides were still waiting Monday afternoon to learn if 14-year-old Blaize Teague would have to stand trial on a murder charge, and if he does, whether it would be as a juvenile or adult.
Testimony in a 10-hour, two-hearing court session ended about 7 p.m. Friday with Associate District Judge Jill Weedon taking matters under advisement over the weekend. She indicated she would issue her decisions in writing sometime this week.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, nothing new had been filed at the Court Clerk’s Office here.
The preliminary hearing was held to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to have Teague stand trial on charges of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Cordell mother Tammi Thomas, 36, and shooting with intent to kill in the wounding of her own 14-year-old son, Christian Thomas. Both crimes occurred about 1 a.m. on July 20 this year.
Teague also is charged with first-degree burglary for allegedly breaking into the Thomas home that night just prior to the shooting of the two subjects.
Testimony in the preliminary hearing ended at 3 p.m. Friday after which defense attorney Michael Beason demurred to the evidence, basically contending it was insufficient to have his client stand trial. Judge Weedon overruled the demurrer but did not formally bind Teague over for trial at that time.
Then followed approximately four hours of testimony on a motion Beason had filed previously asking that his client be recertified as a juvenile if he is required to stand trial. It was at the conclusion of that testimony that Judge Weedon announced she would issue her rulings in writing this week.
Beason’s motion to have his client recertified as a juvenile has been sealed on court order since it was filed Aug. 17, the day after his arrest.
The preliminary hearing had begun Nov. 7, then was continued after one day of testimony to Dec. 1. After another half-day of testimony then, it was continued a second time to Dec. 15, last Friday.
Witnesses heard that day were the accused boy’s parents, Michael and Carissa Teague who indicated they live outside Corn with their three children. In addition to the 14-year-old, they said they have a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old.
Both parents indicated their son could not have committed the murder because the pickup he allegedly drove to Cordell that night never left their yard.
Mr. Teague, who took the stand first, was asked by District Attorney Angela Marsee about the height of his oldest son. He estimated it at 5 feet 7 inches. Asked if he knew Christian Thomas, the boy who was shot and his mother killed, Michael Teague answered, “Yeh, he played on Blaize’s baseball team.”
But he said he also knew there had been “a falling-out” between them about three weeks before the shootings.
Teague said he had purchased the .22 pistol allegedly used in the murder of Mrs. Thomas and the wounding of her son. Asked whose gun it was, the father responded, “It was Blaize’s gun.” He added that he had purchased it July 14 in Arkansas “the day before we came home from visiting my parents.”
Mrs. Marsee, apparently suspecting the parents would say their son had never left home the night of the shootings, asked Mr. Teague if he was aware of his son sneaking out of the house. The father replied that he was aware of it happening one time – when he ran out of gas and had to walk home. 
But the night of the shootings, under questioning by defense attorney Beason, he said that when he and his wife went to bed, Blaize and a friend visiting from Arkansas had gone into the den to play X-box. He also said when he woke up about 7 the next morning, his son had no injuries as if he had been hit with a baseball bat which Christian Thomas previously testified he had swung at the intruder the night he was shot.
Beason, the defense attorney, asked Michael Teague how far his pickup – which was the family’s only vehicle at home that night – was from the master bedroom.
“I’d say about 20 feet,” he answered.
“If it was started while you were making love to your wife, you’d have heard it?” asked Beason.
“Yes,” replied Teague.
“On the 19th (before Ms. Thomas was murdered about 1 a.m. on the 20th) you never heard it start or the lights come on?” asked Beason. “No,” answered Teague, adding that the next morning it was parked in the same spot it had been the night before when they went to bed.
Beason wanted to know about the son’s demeanor the next morning. Told that it was fine, the attorney asked, “Nothing wrong?” Again the answer was no.
“Was he happy?” asked Beason.
“Yeh, we’re happy people,” the father replied.
“Did he look like a person who had just committed a violent crime?” “No sir,” was the answer.
Teague was also asked about a ghilly suit Christian Thomas had described the shooter as wearing. Such a suit was found in the Teague home when investigators executed a search warrant.
Asked about that, Teague said it was given to him by a friend of his and was too big for his son.
But he said his son’s friend who was visiting from Arkansas had worn it numerous times.