TULSA - Just one day after former Tulsa Police officer Shannon Kepler was found guilty of of first-degree manslaughter the sister of Jeremey Lake, the young man shot dead by Kepler, is speaking out for the first time.
Hattie Cagle said she often goes to her brother's grave site to talk to him, and Thursday there's good news.
“I was very happy and very excited to see this man’s going to serve some time for punishing my brother, an innocent man," said Cagle, Lake's half sister.
She watched on TV as her father spoke out for the first time.
“My son can have his justice that he deserves. And we all as a family get the justice we deserve," Carl Morse told reporters from an elevator.
And she watched what she also called justice, as former Tulsa Police officer Shannon Kepler left the courthouse in handcuffs.
“I honestly feel like he should have to suffer for as long as we’ve had to suffer.”
She said she resented seeing him walk around seemingly a free man for so long.
“Every time we had to look at him, and every time I’d see him on the news it would aggravate me, and it would hurt me, knowing that my brother’s killer is right there; And there’s nothing I can personally do about it.”
The sight of him bringing back the moment she heard what happened in 2014 on North Maybelle Avenue.
“To just have my brother, my rock, taken away from me was pretty much having my world shattered apart.”
Wednesday, Kepler's defense attorney said the verdict was wrong, and the trial purely political.
“It’s a sham," said Defense Attorney Richard O'Carroll.
“I hope and I pray that every day it eats at him. And that he feels the guilt, he feels remorse. I want him to try to hurt as bad as we’ve hurt," Cagle said.
Hattie saying as along she has to talk to her brother through a layer of dirt, guilty will always be what Shannon Kepler is to her.
“I got that taken from me because some man wanted to kill him for only God knows what reason. And only he can answer to God for that.”
The jury recommended Kepler spend 15 years in jail, and pay a $10,000 fine.
His official sentencing is on November 20.
2 Works for You reached out to his attorneys, and have not heard back.
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