No Charges For Oklahoma Mom Sarah McKinley, Who Shot Intruder To Protect Baby

BLANCHARD, Okla. -- Authorities don't plan to file charges against an Oklahoma woman who fatally shot a New Year's Eve intruder at her house while she had a 911 dispatcher on the phone, but the intruder's alleged accomplice has been charged in the death.

A 911 tape released to Oklahoma City media outlets Wednesday reveals that 18-year-old Sarah McKinley asked a Grady County dispatcher for permission to shoot the intruder. McKinley's 3-month-old son was with her when she shot Justin Shane Martin, 24, at her Blanchard mobile home.

"I've got two guns in my hand. Is it OK to shoot him if he comes in this door?" McKinley asked the dispatcher.

"Well, you have to do whatever you can do to protect yourself," the dispatcher is heard telling McKinley. "I can't tell you that you can do that, but you have to do what you have to do to protect your baby."

Oklahoma law allows the use of deadly force against intruders, and prosecutors said McKinley clearly acted in self-defense. According to court documents, Martin was holding a knife when he died.

"Our initial review of the case doesn't indicate she violated the law in any way," Assistant District Attorney James Walters told The Oklahoman newspaper.

However, prosecutors have charged his alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Dustin Louis Stewart, with first-degree murder. According to authorities, Stewart was with Martin but ran away from McKinley's home after hearing the gunshots.

"When you're engaged in a crime such as first-degree burglary and a death results from the events of that crime, you're subject to prosecution for it," Walters said.

Stewart was arraigned Wednesday and was being held in the Grady County jail. A bond hearing was set for Thursday. His attorney, Stephen Buzin, did not immediately respond to a message left at his office Wednesday night.

According to court documents, Martin and Stewart might have been looking for prescription drugs. McKinley said it took the men about 20 minutes to get through her door, which she had barricaded with a couch.

She said her husband had died about a week earlier – on Christmas Day – after being hospitalized with complications from lung cancer earlier that month.

Comments

[Jeff Allen 3-7-77]

07:12 PM on 04/07/2012

I am happy too hear that Mom & Baby are ok and things turned out for the better in this type of situation. It is sad that a man was killed but he was clearly in the wrong - had no business breaking in and put her in a situation where she was forced to make a decision...thank God it was the right one for the right reasons!!! Here in Montana we have open carry gun laws here (If the liberals done steal them away) and because of that we don't suffer those situations too often as the out come is pretty predictable!! If they do end up trying to charge her..I am sure we will donate for her defense because she was in the right!! blessings too her and her child.

[AquaBuddha Jones]

03:36 PM on 03/20/2012

Here's a kicker:

nationagunrights.org is sending out an email asking for "donations" using Sarah Blanchard of Oklahoma as a case story.

Quoting from the missive, "Never has this been more true than in the case of Sarah Blanchard, a young Oklahoma mother who recently defended herself and her infant child from two individuals who broke into her home looking to commit the worst kind of violence.

Ms. Blanchard didn’t fight off these violent thugs with a knife or a broom, she used a good old fashioned shotgun to protect herself."

If you would like to point out the error(s) of their ways, feel free to let Mr. Dudley Brown, President of nationalgunrights.org know. [e-mail] It's what I'm doing right now. Try it, it's fun for the whole family!

[Pete Gerasia]

04:59 PM on 04/21/2012

Where exactly is the error? Did she not want them to use her name?

[Buster Adams]

02:31 AM on 05/01/2012

Well, you know, they are talking about it, and I don't like them, so this is just as good a reason as any to dump on them.

[zblacktt]

09:49 PM on 02/17/2012

Well this is pretty logical. I mean guy breaking in with a knife in hand, what do???? Him or me, it will always be him.

[Nytowl68]

01:41 AM on 02/17/2012

I guess that's what he gets for bringing a knive to a gun fight !!

[katarrah2]

02:08 AM on 02/21/2012

LMAO!!!!

[mtknibbesr]

01:10 PM on 02/10/2012

WHEN THIS WAS FIRST PUBLISHED, I THOUGHT HOW COULD THEY POSSIBLY CHARGE THIS YOUNG WOMAN WITH ANYTHING? SHE WAS PROTECTING HERSELF, HER CHILD AND HER HOME. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WERE UNBELIEVEABLE. HAD IT BEEN ME, I WOULD HAVE DONE EXACTLY THE SAME THING. I CAN'T COUNT THE TIMES THAT I WAS ALONE WITH AN INFANT, AND OTHER SMALL CHILDREN. I HAD THREE CHILDREN IN 4 1/2 YEARS. MY HUSBAND WAS CAREER MILITARY( AIR FORCE IN SAC,) WHICH WON'T MEAN ANYTHING TO MOST OF YOU BUT HE WAS ALWAYS GONE. THE ONLY THING THAT STOOD BETWEEN HARM AND MY CHILDREN WAS ME AND I WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO PROTECT MY CHILDREN. MY HEART WENT OUT TO THIS YOUNG WOMAN. SHE HAD JUST LOST HER HUSBAND TO CANCER, AND HAD A NEWBORN, NOW SOMEONE HAS BROKEN INTO HER HOME, WHAT NEXT? THE POLICE WANT TO CHARGE HER WITH MURDER....GIVE ME A BREAK!

[novaguy1968]

10:28 AM on 02/14/2012

WHY DID YOU TYPE IN ALL CAPS???????????????????

[mtknibbesr]

01:10 PM on 02/15/2012

BECAUSE I CAN'T SEE WELL AND BECAUSE I DON'T CARE ANYMORE. HUFFINGTON DOESN'T CARE WHAT I TYPE. ENOUGH SAID.

[candy8teen]

08:26 PM on 01/30/2012

The person that should be charged with the death of Justin Shane Martin. Is Justin Shane Martin.
Its sad that this girl has to live with taking someone life, But its a good thing it was him and not her that is dead, I think all women should know how to protect there homes. I am all for gun laws that keep people from becoming victims.

[krica256]

11:43 AM on 01/25/2012

I think it is great that she was able to shoot the intruder. She has a lot of guts. Breaking into someone else's house is unacceptable and the people living in the house should always have the right to shoot the intruder no matter what. There should be no reason why a person could get away breaking in someone's house.

[mmcki43802]

03:50 PM on 01/23/2012

They probably thought she still had her husband's pain drugs. That is a scary
thought for anyone with a loved one dying in such a manner. Everyone needs
to take heed of this story. It is like the folks who watch for death notices and
rob the house during the funeral.

[Jerilyn Jund]

08:20 PM on 01/23/2012

Good post! So true!

[netexas121]

01:14 PM on 01/23/2012

Is that a triple barrel shotgun she's holding?

[Jerilyn Jund]

08:21 PM on 01/23/2012

I have to admit. That gun is way cool!!!!!

[Michael Steaphens]

02:39 AM on 02/21/2012

No.Looks a lot like my Stoeger coach gun.A 12 gage side-by-side short barreled shotgun.Pretty wicked,especially if you load one barrel with buckshot and the other with a slug.

[LongRunAggregateSupply]

05:34 PM on 01/17/2012

Seems like justice was served. Dont break into someones house if you dont want to be shot.

[candy8teen]

08:27 PM on 01/30/2012

agree 1000000000%

[Nytowl68]

01:43 AM on 02/17/2012

Too true. An armed society is a polite society.

[mary smitty]

04:23 PM on 01/16/2012

I am very confused by this woman’s story. some reports refer to two men breaking in, but based on the part of the 911 tape released she only sees the now dead man, never the second man…he claims he stayed at the fence wherever that is. so the image of two men breaking in, one at one door and one at another are false. A lot about this story does not add up. She said in one interview her dog began to growl Well why do we not hear the dog barking on the 911 tape. if someone banged on my doors my dog would go nuts and she had a larger german shepherd but we hear nothing. Some reports claim she recognized the man as a stalker…but on the 911 tape she never mentions that only that she has had two dogs come up missing, nothing about being stalked. Some reports say her mother said the dead man stalked her at a rodeo two years ago? how do you stalk someone at an event two years ago and nothing since? thats stalking?

[Jerilyn Jund]

08:24 PM on 01/23/2012

She's been through a lot. I'm sure it all came out straight in the report. Have somebody try breaking into your house and try to think straight. It's hard really! Trying to protect your baby after already loosing her husband. This is such a sad thing! I'm glad she wasn't punished!

[Larz Blackman]

11:48 AM on 01/26/2012

You should be a detective, Mary. (We'd all go to jail for conspiring to commit conspiracy.)

[mary smitty]

10:35 AM on 01/16/2012

this false stalking charge seems to be another attempt to “prove” that the intruder was coming after her. she is whispering, and we hear no banging or yelling on the 911 tape..don’t you think we would have heard the man yelling or something? I think its clear he was a drug addict who thought the trailer was empty and pried the door with that knife and he was not coming after her, and probably did not even see her, only a flash from a shotgun before his death. Which brings me to my last point, where are her husbands pain pills? the police and sarah claim that is probably what he was after. She then invents a new story that she suspected someone was sneaking into her house while she was gone, and taking her husbands pills, because again some came up missing…first what addict just takes a few pills and comes back? a few reports reporting this new story, go out of their way to say people in blanchard don’t lock their doors…hmmm well if you thought someone was coming into your house while you were gone wouldn’t you change that habit? and if narcotics your dying husband needed were being taken wouldn’t you call the police?

[Jerilyn Jund]

08:30 PM on 01/23/2012

She may have never known pills were missing until this break in and shooting. The pills could have been taken by somebody she new and never noticed them gone. Creating the thought that somebody could have come into her home and taken the pills prior to this break in, without her knowing it until the pills were inquired about. As far as the dogs go. That is odd. Some say there were dogs, and in another report two dogs were missing. She had 4 dogs? Wow!

[Donald J Sullivan]

02:50 AM on 01/15/2012

A fleeting glimpse of our constitution at work......ah if only it could last! The couch gave her ample time to get ready very smart ..Kudos!

[Helena Williamstom]

07:26 PM on 01/13/2012

No Charges!!! Finally the court system got it right!!

Sarah McKinley did what she had to do to protect her baby, herself, and her property.

I only wish I could meet her in person!!!!!

[ScorpioTop]

06:40 AM on 01/09/2012

Its odd the accomplice is charged with murder, since he wasn't the shooter.

[jack Winn]

01:48 PM on 01/09/2012

Felony murder rule.

[ScorpioTop]

11:48 PM on 01/09/2012

It doesn't make sense. He didn't pull the trigger or supply the weapon,

[ragdolly]

04:22 AM on 01/10/2012

It is not odd at all, he was there to harm her and there is no telling what they might have done. Instead when his partner died he became part of the felony. I hope he goes to jail for life. That is one lucky young woman and baby.