By Barry Porterfield
For Pat Horton it was hard to believe the day had finally arrived for Monday’s start of a grand jury in Pauls Valley meant to take a much closer look at his father’s shooting death last year.
Ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest, it was Wynnewood resident Tom Horton’s death last December that now has 12 grand jurors and two alternates set to conduct a closed-door investigation expected to include a number of witnesses and various photos and videos submitted by family and friends of Horton.
One of Horton’s surviving sons, Pat, was among that group looking on Monday as District Judge Candace Blalock and assistant district attorneys began the process of getting a grand jury seated.
“I can’t believe we’re actually sitting here with this about to start,” Horton said from inside a Pauls Valley courtroom.
“With all the hurdles and obstacles we’ve faced it’s hard to believe we got here,” he said. “When we first started I didn’t think we were going to make it, but here we are.”
The process began in July when five petitioners began collecting enough signatures to convene a grand jury investigation of Horton’s death.
The five included Horton’s sons, Pat and Matt Horton, and family friends Shannon Kile, Raymond Bazor and Karen Ann Bazor.
Even though he was pleased about the grand jury’s start, Pat Horton did express some reservations.
“At first I was feeling a little bit of anxiety about coming here because of the discussions about my dad,” he said.
“Plus I wasn’t sure if we could come into the courtroom and listen to what was going on today. The last thing I wanted to do was be a hindrance to this in any way.”
With the random selection done in an open courtroom, Horton and others watched as Blalock led the process by asking prospective jurors to give some personal information about themselves.
The judge and Garvin County Assistant District Attorney George Burnett then asked each a series of questions designed to determine whether they could serve as an impartial juror in the case.
When asked their initial thoughts about being selected as potential jurors, some described it as a bit of a hardship while others said they believed it would be interesting to hear the case.
Burnett, who will serve as an adviser to the jury, read through a long list of possible witnesses, which stretched out to more than 50 names.
“The grand jury decides when or if a witness is called to testify,” Burnett said.
Jurors are scheduled to hit the road today for a required inspection of all jails in the county, while testimony in the case is scheduled to get under way Wednesday morning.
