He Got a New Gun for Christmas; His Neighbor Was Dead by Xmas Afternoon

An Oklahoma man has been charged with first degree manslaughter after he shot and killed his neighbor while firing his new gun on Christmas Day.   Police say a single bullet traveled half a mile, killing an elderly woman on her porch, with a baby in her arms.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey there, folks. It is Monday, December the twenty ninth,
and a man in Oklahoma got himself a gun for Christmas.
It was a Christmas gift to himself, and he went
out on Christmas Day to test it out in his
backyard and he ends up accidentally killing his elderly neighbor.

(00:30):
And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
This is a story Robes and maybe several people missed
over the weekend, but this happened on Christmas Day. It
has a lot of elements that are tragic, bizarre, wild
coincidences and heartbreaking. But your reaction, We're going to get
into all the details, but just the reaction to what

(00:51):
we're talking about. A Christmas Day tragedy and a man
actually out and back trying to enjoy a Christmas gift.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, it's one of those freak accident that obviously is
incredibly tragic. And then when you hear where this woman was,
who was around her, it could have been even more
significantly tragic given who was sitting on that porch alongside
this woman. I mean, think about that they had just
opened their gifts. It was in the afternoon, probably it

(01:19):
had their Christmas meal, just enjoying the day on their porch,
never thinking for one moment that a bullet from what
a half a mile away could possibly erroneously and tragically
kill them one.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
And we will get into but what you're alluding to
there is that there were not children just close by,
but quite frankly in the arms of the woman who
was shot. This is according to police. But this is
in Comanche, Oklahoma. Not that familiar ahead of time with it,
but about one hundred miles south southwest of Oklahoma City

(01:53):
is where this is happening. And on Christmas Day, three
thirty in the afternoon, police get a call of a
woman who who was shot. And right now as we speak,
there's a man by the name of Cody Adams, thirty
three years old, who's been charged with first degree manslaughter.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Now, initially, Robe doesn't know.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
She saw some of the early articles but they were
saying they only identified the woman as an elderly woman
who had been killed. They didn't say her name, but
now they have given us her name. I haven't seen
the age, but again the police are saying an elderly woman.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yes, her name is Sandra Phelps, and she was sitting
there on Christmas Day on the porch holding a child
in her left arm, and there was another child in
a stroller in front of her, and I believe there
were two other adults on the porch alongside her. And
she was shot in her right arm. And did you
understand this as well, babe, that it had actually moved

(02:44):
into her chest cavity at some point and she was
killed pretty quickly. They've tried to perform CPR on her,
but to no avail.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Died at the scene.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
But yes, to that point, you hear when I first
was here, she got shot.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
In the arm, I said, wow, well what happened? But yes,
that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
It moved so wasn't shot in the chest, but essentially
shot in the chest because it moved into her chest
and that's why she ended up Deading what just the
idea that just the chances of all of this, first
of all, that somebody it was maybe up to half
a mile away, the bullet ends up in that exact place,
doesn't go to the left or to the right a

(03:19):
little bit where two children were it that it's just, man,
if you ever believe in miracles or God or something
else going on, there are just some things that happened
in the world that you can't understand that type of
coincidence by a matter of inches.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
And the trajectory of the bullet too. The police were
saying that it came at such a strange trajectory. I
don't know if that's how it moved, but they noted
there was some chipped piece of terra cotta that made
They were actually having to go back and trace to
figure out how the hell has happened. I'm just imagining
being on that porch because by the accounts of the
folks who were sitting next to her, she had kind

(03:56):
of made a joke somebody got a gun for Christmas
because they were hearing someone practicing shooting rounds, and then
they said moments later, all she said was ouch.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Again, this is in the AffA David. This is not
some hearsay or some reporters talking to little No, they
say she actually made that comment. And several people commented
around that area that yes, they did hear folks shooting guns. Yes, properly,
people got guns for Christmas. Yes, When police were canvas
in the area, several homes were known as.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
What they call them places that shoot. Yes, right, but
when you have a place that.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Shoots in your backyard, here's the issue. You have to
have a proper backstop. You have to have something that
catches your stray bullets because you're gonna miss your target
a plenty. And this was the only home they said,
as they canvass the area that wasn't cleared as having
a proper backstop, and just so happened this was the

(04:51):
house that they were looking for.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
You know, this is scary because I didn't even know.
I am not familiar at all with guns, but having
had a home in a row, you would hear gunshots
all the time. But I, you know, it always was
a little scary, especially I like to hike and it's wooded,
and you just think, I don't know where these people
are shooting. I don't know if they have all the
safety precautions in place. It is a frightening thing. And

(05:15):
anyone who lives outside of a city almost certainly knows
exactly what we're talking about. We I would hear it daily,
and I just you have to hope that the people
around you who are practicing are doing it safely because
this type of thing, obviously it's rare, but to hear
it happen the way it happened, that is that would

(05:35):
definitely give me pause. Now you kind of almost want
to check out, how do you know what your neighbors
have in place and what they don't and.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Who regulates that. I don't know if someone if you're
required to. I know, Iody's coming by your house to
check and maybe you don't. You don't get in trouble
until after the fact, until after a tragedy possibly happens.
But this they go to this guy's house and they
get to his house because several people in the neighborhood
apparently told him and.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Everybody was aware. He got a new gun.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Christmas for Christmas and it had been shooting it in
days prior. According to them, he actually got the gun
for himself, bought it as a Christmas gift to himself,
and in a couple of days prior to Christmas, he
had been out so they had heard him firing. But
then happened, This happens on Christmas Day. Now police went
and this was also another interesting nugget here at Robes.
They go to his house, They go out to the backyard.

(06:23):
They say he had been shooting in a red bull can.
They see the spent casings. But they're standing where he
would have been standing to fire his gun and where
he said And they have a direct line of sight,
wow to emergency vehicles and emergency sirens, and they hear
and see the police vehicles that are at the scene
where the woman was dead. It was a direct line

(06:48):
to where that home was. Again, another chilling moment. I'm
sure he never thought that maybe this could happen, But man,
some of the numbers they give you out there for
how far bullets can travel free, that is what's scary.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
And you also think about the fact, I don't know
if he was a gun owner to begin with, or
if this was his first gun, but look, at some
point it's someone's first gun. So they're learning as they go.
They're practicing, that's what they're doing. But do they know
all the safety measures that have to be in place?
Do they know about backstops? Do they recognize how far
bullets can travel? You know, I was looking in one

(07:22):
of these articles. There was a link to just how
many accidental gun deaths there are here in the United
States each year, and I guess the most recent numbers
are twenty twenty three. But it was four hundred and
sixty plus accidental deaths in one year from folks who
are just mishandling guns, misfiring guns, and that is just
a damn shame. That is a huge number.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
And now we add this woman to the tragedy. He
is now facing up to four years minimum four year
minimum in prison for this. And he was cooperative, according
to the affidavit. And they said Robes, as soon as
they explained to him what had happened and that they

(08:06):
thought he might have been responsible for this woman's death,
there was I think Robes and what they describe a
genuine human reaction to a guy who just had no
idea that he was endangering somebody else.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, he cried, He cried, and I think most human
beings would have done the exact same thing. And what
he said was, I'm sorry. I cannot even imagine dealing
with that or having to go through that or hear
that you had caused us a tragedy like that while
you were just out back shooting at a red bullcan

(08:43):
practicing with your new gun. That had to be one
of the most horrific things to be told on Christmas Day.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
We don't know, at least from the affidate of the
ages of the children. I was curious to know, but
they did say one was in a stroller, and again
there was an elderly woman holding another child. You can
imagine it's a small child. Don't know how the family
is doing, don't know how the kids are doing. But
they had to watch this woman their loved one. Again,
they didn't realize what happened, And I thought it was

(09:12):
interesting that they said she simply said ouch. She said
ouch and then collapsed, as if it wasn't necessarily a
chaotic scene or maybe a bloody or some kind of explosion.
She got hits that ouch and just collapsed is how
it's described.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Wow, I know you. Oh, I mean look, I think
a lot of people wonder what it would feel like,
what it would be like, and just to know that
it was that quick, I think that was the takeaway
from all accounts that at least it didn't sound as
though she suffered. It didn't sound as if it was
some horrific death. It sounded like it was quick. And

(09:49):
they did rush to her, try to perform CPR on her,
and unfortunately, as she died on the scene, she didn't
even get a chance to get to taken to the
hospital and one bullet, one bullet just at her at
the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Well, folks, sure, wrong place, wrong time, Sure awful coincidence.
But we will let you hear exactly how the government
describes this man's actions and will give you our thoughts
about this man now, who made a mistake, who made
a tragic and now deadly mistake. But does that really

(10:26):
lessen the impact and the responsibility he should hold for
what has happened?

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Stay here, all.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Right, folks, we continue here on AB and TJ, on
this Monday morning, a Monday morning after a weekend, at
Christmas weekend, a lot of people enjoying time with the family.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Hopefully you had.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Hopefully you had a successful and fun and safe one,
but a tragedy in Oklahoma as a thirty three year
old man, Cody Adams has been charged with first degree
manslaughter for what, by all accounts was the accidental shooting
death of Sandra Phelps, who police describe as an elderly
woman who was hanging out at her home at a
home with her family holding a child at the time,

(11:12):
and Cody Adams was doing some target practice in his
backyard with his New Christmas Glock forty five when she
was shot. Now ROSI described here and look we by
all accounts, yes, he said he's sorry. Yes he cried,
and he immediately was upset. But this is how the
government put it in the AFT for David. They say
he created a situation of unreasonable risk and probability of

(11:36):
death or great bodily harm to another person and demonstrated
a conscious disregard for the safety of others. That has
to be that's given. I mean, that's just true. I
mean it is no matter what you think. This is
one I think about drunk driving deaths. Nobody drinks and
drives and is trying to kill anybody, but there is

(11:58):
a there's a reckless disregard for other people. This has
to be in that same type of vein, even though
it's an awful tragy.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, I just looked up because they did decide to
charge Cody with first degree manslaughter, they could have done secondary.
I was looking at the difference between the two, and
I'm curious what you think, because first degree manslaughter occurs
when someone intends to injure someone severely instead of solely
hurting them, the injuries cause death. Okay, that's first degree.

(12:27):
Second degree manslaughter occurs when someone is acting recklessly and
aware of their potentially fatal actions. Instead of stopping, they
continue with their reckless acts, which leads to another person's death.
It sounds I mean, I again am not anyone with
any sort of legal training, but it sure sounds like
what happened, or at least what's been described as having happened,

(12:50):
sounds a lot more like second degree manslaughter than first
degree manslaughter.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Look, they those prosecutors, let them do their thing. They
know what they're doing and why.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
And I won't ever pretend to understand that's out of
Oklahoma statute. I assume they might be different in different states.
But that's you say, that's what they say it is.
But I just I don't know how if you're in
your backyard yard firing a gun, you can't just say that, well,
nothing's close enough, so I should have had a reasonable
belief that I was doing something safe.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
It just doesn't work that way.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, A half a mile, I mean again, I just
try to think about that visually. As a runner, I
know how long it takes to run half a mile.
Takes me about four and a half minutes to run
half a mile, So that's the distance this bullet traveled
before it hit this elderly woman holding an infant in
her arms.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
So I don't know how to And I saw it
and it was tragic, and I obviously you feel bad
immediately with their victims, but there are also two families
who are now going to be devastated in a way
and changed forever. And I don't know how to feel.
Sometimes it almost feels terrible to have sympathy for him,

(14:01):
you know what I mean. He didn't mean to do this,
but he did something wrong that resulted in somebody's death,
don't I don't know how we handle, how we deal it,
just the emotions. I think a lot of people would
look and immediately go, you monster, you idiot, you reckless
fool out there firing off a gun. Yeah, I guess
all that's true. But man, there's just something about these

(14:21):
types of story. It just you almost feel torn, and
it's difficult to just disregard the guy. And I don't know,
it seems weird to have some type of sympathy, but
I'm trying to express.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
In a story like this.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Oh, I think everyone feels it, babe. I think you
expressed it perfectly, because that is it can be true
that there can be there can be sympathy for both
sides in this one, because there wasn't an intention to
do harm, but there was a recklessness that caused it,
and so yes, there has to be accountability. There has
to be some sort of punishment. I think that Look,
if that were your mother, if that were your grandmother,

(14:57):
you would feel very passionately about it. We can have
a little bit more of a distance from it emotionally
and look at it from the facts and say, man,
this poor stupid guy who did a dumb thing is
now going to pay for it, not just with his
loss of freedom and having to go to prison, but
also just living with that guilt for the rest of
his life. That's not nothing.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
And you know what, those kids.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Are going to live with something for the rest of
their lives. Those other adults who are on that porch
are going to live with something watching their loved one
die on Christmas Day and not being able to do
anything about it and actually, quite frankly, not even understanding
what was happening in the moment. This is just an
awful story. And you know, all the times roads to

(15:43):
try to find some lesson or some I don't have
it yet on this one, or a nice some kind
of a takeaway, but my god, just please folks, keep
folks and your loved ones close and just be a
little kind, a little grace because people went through some
hell on the holidays.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
That was my takeaway. Actually, when I was reading the
story and we were researching it, I just thought about
the fact that we have our three girls sleeping here
with us right now, and I just felt so grateful
knowing that, Look, we don't have security in this world,
in this life, and so what we have is right
now and it is a reminder to hug the people

(16:19):
we love. That is my takeaway.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
All right, Well, folks, wherever you may be today, please
please hope you have a happy and safe one. Know
a lot of people out there are still making their
way back from the holidays as well.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Please be careful.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
A lot of weather going to be in your way,
but we always appreciate you spending some time with us
here on Amy and TJ. I am TJ. Holmes On
behalf of my dear Amy Robach. We will talk to
you all