Lawyer says fourth trial would be wasting resources

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – The defense attorney for a former Oklahoma police officer says plans to try his client for a fourth time in the death of his daughter’s boyfriend amounts to “a waste of valuable resources.”

Three mistrials have been declared in the case of Shannon Kepler, who was charged in the August 2014 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Jeremey Lake in Tulsa. Kepler is white and Lake was black.

Defense attorney Richard O’Carroll said he’s never heard of a case being tried four times and suggested there is political motivation behind the prosecution’s plan.

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said in a statement Monday that prosecutors and the Tulsa Police Department “are in full agreement that this case should proceed with prosecution.” In the most recent trial, held this month, jurors deadlocked after almost three hours of deliberations.