Ex-Tulsa officer gets prison in daughter’s boyfriend’s death
TULSA, Okla. — A white ex-Oklahoma police officer was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for the fatal off-duty shooting of his daughter’s black boyfriend, after four trials spanning nearly a year, including three that resulted in hung juries.
Former Tulsa officer Shannon Kepler was convicted last month of first-degree manslaughter in the 2014 slaying of 19-year-old Jeremey Lake. Tulsa County District Court Judge Sharon Holmes also imposed a $10,000 fine.
Before Kepler was sentenced, Lake’s father, Carl Morse, addressed the court, his head bowed as if struggling to speak.
“The last three years of my life have been a living hell,” he said, describing his son as a “fighter” from his premature birth, and saying Lake had devoted his life to helping the homeless and was going to welding school to make something of himself.