Tulsa World
November 3, 2013
![Darren Price.](/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Darren-Price.png)
![Jerard Davis.](/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Jerard-David.png)
![Carissa Horton and Ethan Nichols.](/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Carissa-Horton-and-Ethan-Nichols..png)
One of two men charged with murdering a couple at a Tulsa park was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole as part of a plea deal that allows him to avoid a possible death penalty.
Jerard Davis, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree “felony” murder linked to the Sept. 18, 2011, fatal shootings of Carissa Horton, 18, and Ethan Nichols, 21.
Tulsa County District Judge Bill Musseman imposed two concurrent no-parole life terms.
Davis and Darren Price, 21, faced separate murder trials, with Davis’ trial set to start next week.
As part of Tuesday’s resolution, two counts of robbery with a firearm involving allegations that Davis and Price robbed Nichols and Horton against Davis were dismissed.
The bodies of Horton, an Oral Roberts University student, and Nichols, who worked at the Blue Bell Creamery in Broken Arrow, were found Sept. 19, 2011, in Hicks Park, in the 3400 block of South Mingo Road. Both had been shot in the head.
In a document supporting his guilty pleas, Davis blamed Price for shooting both victims.
Vic Regalado, a Tulsa police detective at the time, testified in January that when he questioned Price, Price said he and Davis saw the couple at the park and that Davis pulled a gun and pointed it at the victims.
Regalado indicated that according to Price, Davis forced the couple to their knees at gunpoint while robbing them.
Price said Davis first shot the man and then shot the woman, Regalado testified.