Two murder trials on docket

One of two murder trials on the current McClain County jury docket was jurors hearing testimony Tuesday.

Associate District Judge Charles Gray was presiding over the trial of a mother and son who are accused of stabbing Michael McGuffee to death Oct. 15, 2021.

Debbie Azelea Senft and Zachary Tyler Mussett, both of Texarkana, TX, face murder in the first degree charges. The six-man, six-woman jury is expected to get the case to them for deliberation by Thursday or Friday.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation investigated the homicide that occurred north of
Blanchard.

Authorities report after the crime Senft and Mussett fled the state and were apprehended in Wyoming. They were extradited back to Oklahoma and transported back by McClain County Sheriff Landy Offolter.

The other murder trial on the current docket was still in the process of seating a jury as of Tuesday.

District Judge Leah Edwards will preside over the trial of Joshua Allen Finkbeiner who is accused of first degree murder in the death of Shaliyah Toombs.

Finkbeiner is accused along with Daniel Vasquez and Stacy Harjo of strangling Toombs in April 29, 2018.

Toombs was pregnant at the time of the slaying, so Finkbeiner is accused of killing the unborn child as well.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case which is expected to take between five and seven weeks. The two phase trial will first determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant and the second phase will be for the death penalty. That phase is expected to take at least a week, a court official said.

Testimony was scheduled to begin Monday.