GUTHRIE, Okla. (AP) — The family of a slain sheriff’s deputy in central Oklahoma has spoken out about their loss and announced their support in seeking the death penalty for the man accused of killing him.
David James Wade, 40, was shot while serving an eviction notice in Mulhall on April 18, The Oklahoman reported. He died from his injuries that day.
Forty-five-year-old Nathan Aaron LeForce is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and larceny of a motor vehicle. Logan County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas says she’s seeking the death penalty in the case.
“Let there be no question that we fully support District Attorney Thomas’s decision to pursue the death penalty,” said Jerry Wade, David Wade’s brother. “I have every faith that the justice system will deliver what my brother and those left behind missing him rightfully deserve. The scales will be weighed and evil will reap what it has sowed.”
About two dozen of Wade’s family members attended a news conference outside the sheriff’s office Sunday morning.
“I can speak for my entire family when I tell you the last couple of months have been tremendously difficult for us,” Jerry Wade said. “We’ve been so incredibly shocked by the loss of David that most of us have been unable to publicly talk about it.”
David Wade enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard shortly after high school, and the brothers were members of Company C of the 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment. They eventually served together on a deployment to Bosnia in the 1990s.
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