Mikell Patrick Smith (2023)
Original co-defendant for first sentence Roger James Berget executed June 8, 2000.
Summary of Offense: On October 21, 1985, two hunters discovered the body of Rick Patterson in a wooded area near Interstate 40 and Rockwell. The 33-year-old Patterson, a math teacher at a local middle school, had been killed by a shotgun blast. His car was found burned in a field near Tulsa three days later. In August 1986, Berget was arrested by Del City and Midwest City police on robbery and burglary charges. Berget confessed to police that he and a friend had abducted and killed Patterson. Berget related that he and Mikell Smith decided to steal a car so that they could go riding around on October 19, 1985. They went to an Oklahoma City supermarket where they saw Rick Patterson walking toward a car. When Patterson opened the car, Berget forced him at gunpoint to slide over to the passenger's side. Smith got into the back seat.
Berget drove the car to a deserted area of town, where the two men tied or taped Patterson's hands and mouth and then put him into the trunk of the car. Berget drove east on I-40 to an isolated place. When Berget and Smith opened the trunk, the men found that Patterson had freed his hands. They tied his hands behind his back, forced him to stand up next to a tree and then shot him. Fearing that Patterson was still alive and could crawl away, another shot was fired. Berget pled guilty to first-degree murder, although he recanted his confession to the extent of blaming his accomplice for actually killing Patterson. Berget also confessed to killing James Meadows in Hughes County. Both Berget and Smith received a death sentence, but Smith was successful on appeal in 1992 and his sentence was reduced to life in prison without parole when he agreed to plead guilty before retrial.
August 19, 1993
Inmate Stabbed, Killed in Attack At State Prison
By Stacy D. Johnson
The Oklahoman
A convicted murderer was allegedly stabbed and killed by two fellow inmates who threatened a guard with homemade knives, authorities said.
George Arwood Stidham died at 7:12 p.m. Tuesday at McAlester Regional Hospital about an hour after he was repeatedly stabbed, Oklahoma Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie said.
Stidham was housed in the administrative segregation "D" unit at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Inmates Earl Neal Garver and Mikell Patrick Smith were placed in strip cells while the stabbing is investigated by the corrections department and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Massie said the incident began when Garver held a homemade knife on a corrections officer and forced the guard to release Smith from a shower area.
Garver and Smith both held weapons on the officer and took keys to gain access to another shower area where Stidham was. Stidham was stabbed multiple times, Massie said.
After the stabbing, Massie said Garver and Smith came out of the shower area, threw down the knives and keys, returned to their cells and locked themselves inside, Massie said.
Massie declined to released the name of the guard, who was not injured. He did not know a specific motive for the killing.
Until last week, Stidham was housed in a Kentucky prison under the interstate compact agreement.
Massie said he believed Stidham was sent out of state because of security problems and his involvement in the 1985 riot at the penitentiary in McAlester.
Stidham was convicted of murder in Kentucky for killing another inmate.
He was returned to Oklahoma for unspecified reasons, Massie said.
Stidham entered the Oklahoma prison system in 1971.
He received two life sentences including one for the fatal stabbing of an inmate at the penitentiary in 1972.
He also received two consecutive 50-year terms for kidnapping and other sentences totaling 30 more years.
Smith, 27, was given a 500-year sentence for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in 1989 after he stabbed a correctional officer in the heart. The officer recovered.
Smith was convicted of killing a Moore math teacher in 1985 and received a death sentence. In 1992, the state Court of Criminal Appeals granted Smith a new trial which has not yet been held.
Garver, 25, was considered a ringleader in the 1988 Stringtown riot at the Mack Alford Correctional Center, officials said.
He was convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for acts committed during the riot and sentenced to a 30-year term.
He also received two-year sentences each for second-degree burglary and escape.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...n/62450887007/
October 31, 1995
"Most Dangerous" Inmate Pleads Guilty to Murder
By Ed Godfrey
The Oklahoman
Heavily guarded and away from public view, "the most dangerous man" in the state prison system admitted Monday in Oklahoma County District Court to killing a Moore math teacher 10 years ago.
In exchange for his guilty plea to first-degree murder, Oklahoma County prosecutors agreed to a sentence of life without parole for Mikell Patrick Smith.
An Oklahoma County jury had found Smith, 30, guilty in the Oct. 20, 1985 shotgun slaying of Rick Lee Patterson.
Patterson was abducted at random from an Oklahoma City grocery store and killed for his car. The jury sentenced Smith to death in the murder.
However, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in 1992 overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, ruling the jury should not have been allowed to hear a tape recording of a co-defendant's interview with police.
The co-defendant, Robert Berget, pleaded guilty and received the death penalty. In the tape-recorded interview, he blamed Smith for the murder. During the trial, Berget testified Smith wasn't involved.
Assistant District Attorney Ray Elliott said a plea agreement was reached with Smith because the tape recording was "very critical" to the first conviction. The tape recording would not have been allowed in the retrial.
Smith pleaded guilty before Oklahoma County District Judge Nancy Coats, who barred all spectators from the courtroom, including the media and family members of the victim and defendant.
Coats sealed the courtroom at the request of the state Department of Corrections. There were guards armed with assault rifles in the courtroom and county sheriff deputies were stationed at exits on the floor.
There were approximately 20 prison guards and deputies either inside or outside the courtroom during the sentencing, Elliott said. Smith was shackled and in belly chains when he appeared before the judge after arriving from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on Monday.
Jerry Massie, spokesman for the corrections department, said prison officials asked that the courtroom be closed to the public for security and safety reasons.
"He creates a great concern for us," Massie said of Smith. "He's an escape risk. He's a cold-blooded killer. He's a definite threat to anybody he comes in contact with. " Smith already is serving a sentence of life without parole for the August 1993 slaying of fellow death row inmate George Stidham.
That jury was deliberating a death sentence when Smith and another inmate, Earl Garver, pleaded guilty in exchange for life without parole.
Smith also received 500 years in prison for the near-fatal stabbing of a prison guard in April 1989. He also stabbed an inmate in 1987.
Smith has attempted escape several times. In March, he escaped from the Oklahoma County Jail but was recaptured the same day. He escaped once from his prison cell but did not get out of the institution, Massie said.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...r/62374898007/
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