Resentencing on hold for McGee

Convicted killer Tucker McGee and the family of his victim, JaRay Wilson, are now awaiting possible action by Gov. Mary Fallin to learn under what conditions the District Attorney’s Office may continue to pursue his original sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Before their adjournment May 4, both the Oklahoma Senate and House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1221 which sets forth a specific process for pursuing the original sentence, not for this case alone but all like it where the person convicted of a murder was under 18 at the time it occurred. The governor has until May 19 to approve or reject the bill.
If she does nothing, District Attorney Angela Marsee said it will be considered a “pocket veto” and will not become law.
Another proposed bill which would have completely done away with life-without-parole sentences for defendants who committed their crimes before they turned 18 was not approved by the legislature so of course it never went to the governor.  
Mrs. Marsee this week asked for additional time to see what Governor Fallin will do with S.B. 1221 before deciding what her office will do. District Judge Doug Haught on Monday approved her request to continue pre-trial proceedings, setting May 25 as the next date for a hearing. It’s scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. that day.
Judge Haught presided over McGee’s 2015 trial and said Monday he had not yet read S.B. 1221. He asked if it was retroactive, to which Marsee replied, “It is.”
At the trial, in pronouncing punishment, he had said to McGee, “It is simply my decision you are not entitled to have your sentence mitigated. I do order that you be sentenced to life without parole.”
He also called the defendant’s actions “irresponsible and murderous.” 
McGee was 10 days short of his 18th birthday when he shot and killed Miss Wilson, who was then 16, on Oct. 14, 2012. He was convicted March 3, 2015, of first-degree murder by a Custer County jury which recommended life without parole.
Testimony at the trial was that the victim was shot twice in the head after her killer and a friend, Cody Godfrey, had spent much of a Sunday afternoon smoking a synthetic form of marijuana called K2. The shooting took place along a road north of Weatherford, and both young men then dragged her body off the road to a secluded place and buried her in a shallow grave. She remained missing for over a year until Godfrey began cooperating with authorities and led them to the gravesite.
In a deal with prosecutors, he received a seven-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of accessory after the fact.
McGee told Arvella Rucks, who did a presentence report on him, that he began smoking marijuana at age 15 and used it daily until his arrest for the murder. But he said he also had used cocaine, amphetamines, methadone, sleeping pills, Valium/Librium, and opiates including heroin.
He also said he had once attempted suicide in 2011 by taking 10 Ecstasy pills. He would have been about 15 then.