Oklahoma
A court diversion program saved his life. Now he guides others through the program
Michael Holder grew up in south Oklahoma City drinking and doing drugs.
By age 40, he’d been stabbed, arrested and even shot in the neck with a 9 mm pistol. The bullet missed his spine by 2 centimeters as it exited his back, he says.
What Holder expected would be a life of crime with an early ending changed in 2021, however, when an assistant public defender convinced him to enter into a drug court diversion program started at Oklahoma County District Court in 1995.
“I was headed down a bad path,” says Holder, 42, who today is clean and works as a peer recovery support specialist at the Diversion Hub while pursuing an addiction counseling degree at Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City.
After that, he plans to obtain a psychology degree from the University of Central Oklahoma, and perhaps one day, a doctorate.
“I’m on a 10-year plan,” he says.
For now, Holder enjoys his work at the Diversion Hub in Oklahoma City as a navigator helping people who are participating in the county’s Court Ordered Outpatient Diversion program, a treatment-based program for criminal offenders whose problems are rooted in mental health issues.
“God had a purpose for me. I just wasn’t ready yet,” he reflects today.
Holder believes there are others like him who are looking for the same kind of help, and additional funds recently received by the county and Diversion Hub should help.
More: These Oklahomans needed mental health care. Instead, they died in jail
The $1 million grant made by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance will help significantly increase the diversion drug court’s capacity over the next four years.
The money eventually will expand the program’s capacity from the 150 participants it handles today to 250 at any given time, a release about the grant states.
The need definitely is there. Only 57% of those seeking to enter the program in 2022 were admitted, largely because of staffing shortages, the release states.
Specifically, the additional funds will help the county’s drug court bring on an additional assistant district attorney and an additional public defender.
It also will pay to add a program navigator, who will work with 125 drug court participants each year to help them secure needed services by guiding them to appropriate resources.
Plus, the grant is paying to introduce new case management software to make it easier for the court’s staff to supervise program participants, and it is setting aside other dollars to help participants pay for required urinalyses while they look for steady work.
Funding for the new navigator is critical, says Melissa Walton, strategic director of Oklahoma County’s Treatment Courts program.
“When someone pleas into the drug court program right now, we have recovery navigators who help get them out of jail, help them get started doing urinalyses and put them in touch with their probation officers,” Walton said.
“But as they go through latter stages of the program, they might need more help to get their IDs, GEDs and find jobs so they can finish the program, and that’s a little bit harder if you don’t have a support system,” she said.
Nine diversion programs operated by Oklahoma County’s courts system
Oklahoma County’s jail population fell below 1,300 the first weekend of December, marking the first time since 1996 it has held so few prisoners.
The jail in early December also was no longer the state’s largest. Its population on Dec. 5 was 1,325 detainees, compared to 1,419 in Tulsa County, jail CEO Brandi Garner told the Oklahoma County’s jail trust on Dec. 4.
The per capita detainee rate for Oklahoma County stood at 166 per 100,000 residents, while Tulsa County’s per capita detainee rate was 212 per 100,000, Garner said.
More: Oklahoma’s Narcan vending machines have dispensed thousands of life-saving doses in six months
“There is a lot of people who deserve credit for this,” said Garner, who took an opportunity to thank Oklahoma County’s judges, district attorneys, public defenders, bondsmen, her staff and Oklahoma County’s diversion programs.
“It is astounding to see all of the teamwork” making that progress possible, she said.
There’s no doubt that Oklahoma County’s diversion programs help.
Including Drug Court, Oklahoma County’s courts currently operate nine different diversion programs involving about 1,300 defendants, giving people charged with felony and misdemeanor crimes alternatives to jail and prison sentences. They include:
- ReMerge Court: A pre-trial diversion program serving high-risk, high-needs mothers facing nonviolent felony offenses.
- DREAMS (Diversion, Recovery, Engagement and Mental Support) Court: A program that serves individuals facing felony charges who suffer from mental illnesses, developmental disabilities or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.
- DUI Court: Offers participants facing that particular felony the tools they need for rehabilitation through individualized, evidence-based treatment.
- Community Sentencing: Program designed to assist individuals facing felony charges by providing them with supervision, treatment, personal development, and employment assistance services.
- Misdemeanor Diversion: Program that gives individuals charged with misdemeanors in Oklahoma County a chance to engage with appropriate treatment services to help them overcome barriers by using community resources to meet their needs.
- COOP (Court Ordered Out Patient) Diversion: Program that gives individuals access to treatment programs after they have been charged with misdemeanors because of mental health issues.
- Veterans Diversion: Program giving veterans charged with misdemeanors a chance to engage with appropriate treatment and community services to help them overcome barriers.
- Veterans Treatment Court: An 18-month-long program designed to give veterans who are struggling with trauma, mental illnesses and/or substance abuse issues opportunities to receive treatment and to work with case managers to apply for any Veterans Affairs benefits they have earned.
As for the Drug Court diversion program, Walton said 73.5% of its participants have completed the three-year program since July 1, 2022. She said 83% of them are living with their children, and 99.3% are employed.
Other grants awarded, sought by Oklahoma County
In November, the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office received a grant for about $1 million to bolster the county’s Veterans Diversion program.
District Attorney Vicki Behenna said the office will use the grant to identify veterans being held on criminal offenses earlier in the adjudication process to get more of them into treatment.
Like Holder, participant David Onzahwah, who served eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a legal administrator including during Operation Phantom Fury in 2004 also credits it for changing his life.
Onzahwah entered the treatment program after being arrested in 2018 on a felony complaint of assault and battery by strangulation.
Today, he is a peer specialist at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs offices.
“Veterans Treatment Court saved my life,” said Onzahwah. “Going through the program was like a mission assignment to me. It sparked a fight in me to keep improving myself in order to accomplish goals. I want the public to know that this program saves lives, reduces stigmas and helps heal veterans that are having trouble adjusting to the civilian lifestyle.”
“These veterans work hard and are eager to change their lives for the better. Veterans Treatment Court gives them an opportunity to make this change,” said Oklahoma County District Court Judge Brent Dishman, who oversees that program.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma County Commissioners in December authorized the county’s staff to seek about $2.4 million as its share of money set aside within Oklahoma’s County Community Safety Investment Fund.
The fund gets its dollars from court-related costs savings brought about by the Smart Justice Reform Act.
Oklahoma County intends to use those dollars to expand Oklahoma County’s diversion courts program further, said Walton and Assistant Public Defender Madison Mélon, who supervises programming and staff for all of Oklahoma County’s diversion programs, plus represent defendants who are in the program.
Walton and Mélon credit the nearly two-dozen nonprofits that partner with the courts and Oklahoma County’s Diversion Hub to provide those defendants with the services they need to help them succeed.
They are especially appreciative of the Diversion Hub for its willingness to hire former program graduates like Holder to be navigators for new defendants just coming into the diversion programs.
“We started in 2019 with just two peers provided through the Oklahoma City-County Health Department. Before that, we didn’t have any,” Mélon said. “I love these people and want to help them, but I have never been where they are. I can only do so much.”
That’s where people like Holder come in.
Before getting into the program in early 2021, Holder had been arrested and charged nine months earlier of two counts of unauthorized use of motor vehicle (he was in possession of a 2022 Lincoln Navigator and a 2020 Ford Focus that weren’t his when he was arrested) and three counts of possessing and concealing stolen property.
He said it took a wake-up call in Oklahoma County’s jail and finding God for him to be able to “basically just quit, just quit the stupidness and insanity I was going through.”
When he meets someone getting out of the jail now, he shows them a lone image he keeps from his past — a mugshot of his most recent arrest.
He buried the actual picture he had of himself before then in a field off NW 122 and Pennsylvania Avenue during a funeral he gave himself, Holder said.
“I had to change my people, my places and my things. I cut ties with all of them,” he said.
“I am somebody who has been there and done that as far as addiction and interfacing with the criminal justice system goes, and I am somebody who knows what it is like. I have lived it,” he said. “People can see that.
“Drug treatment court saved my life. All these people combined really helped, and I am grateful for that every day. For people who want to follow it? It works.”
Mélon and Walton would love to see more people like Holder working with their clients, they said.
“We now have three, four, five, soon-to-be six full-time peers that the Diversion Hub has hired for us working on the teams, and it has been the biggest blessing, in so many different ways both for participants and the the staff,” Mélon said.
“They are a daily reminder of why we get up and come to work every day. I always say they are my favorite coworkers, more than anyone else. It is just different and fun to get to work with them,” Mélon said.
Oklahoma
NBA Playoffs: Los Angeles Lakers fall 2-0 down to Oklahoma City Thunder as Detroit Pistons double advantage over Cleveland Cavaliers
Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander each scored 22 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Lakers 125-107 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semi-final series.
Ajay Mitchell had 20 points and Jaren McCain added 18 for the defending champions, who improved to 6-0 in the playoffs. The Lakers will host Game 3 on Saturday.
The Lakers again were without scoring champion Luka Doncic, who is out indefinitely with a strained left hamstring. They also were missing forward Jarred Vanderbilt, the reserve forward who dislocated the pinkie finger on his right hand during the second quarter of Game 1.
The Lakers also had three players finish with five fouls, limiting their ability to be aggressive late in the game.
Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who struggled with his shot in Game 1, scored 31 points on 10-for-16 shooting in Game 2. LeBron James, coming off a 27-point effort in Game 1, followed that up with 23.
With the Lakers up 63-61 early in the third quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander got tied up with Reaves and was called for his fourth foul. Upon review, it was upgraded to a flagrant 1 for Gilgeous-Alexander’s follow through. Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso was called for a technical foul as the situation was being sorted out.
Gilgeous-Alexander left the game with the Lakers up 65-61, but the Thunder rallied and took control without him. On a fast break, Holmgren found a trailing Jaylin Williams, who hit a three-pointer and was fouled. His free throw put the Thunder up 85-74.
The Thunder outscored the Lakers 32-15 while Gilgeous-Alexander was out in the third quarter to take a 93-80 lead into the fourth. The Lakers cut Oklahoma City’s lead to five in the fourth quarter before the Thunder pulled away again.
Lakers coach Redick criticises referees
Lakers coach JJ Redick criticised the way James is officiated and Reaves complained about treatment from the referees after their defeat.
A number of Lakers players gathered around the referees at midcourt after the game and Reaves voiced his frustration to crew chief John Goble. He felt that while players were jockeying for position during a jump ball during the game, Goble crossed the line.
“At the end of the day, we’re grown men and I just didn’t feel like he needed to yell in my face like that,” Reaves said. “I told him that. I wasn’t disrespectful. I told him if I did that to him first, I would’ve gotten a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn’t get a tech was because he knew he was in the wrong. I felt disrespected.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick was critical of the referees after Game 2
Reaves, Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes all finished with five fouls. The Thunder took 26 free throws to 21 for the Lakers.
Redick doesn’t think a team with the No 1 seed and the reigning MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs extra help from the officials.
“They’re hard enough to play,” Redick said. “They’re hard to play, and you’ve got to be able to just call them. They foul. They do foul.”
James, still effective at attacking the rim at age 41, has attempted just five throws in two games in the series.
“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen. The smaller guys, because they can be theatrical, they typically draw more fouls, and the bigger players that are built like LeBron, it’s hard for them,” Redick said. “They get clobbered, and he got clobbered again tonight a bunch.”
On several occasions, Lakers players were incredulous after calls – or no-calls – from the crew. While the Lakers talked to the officials during and after the game, the Thunder players stayed calm. Redick believes that might have helped them.
“I think some of the reason that they’re officiated the way they are is because they don’t show emotion,” Redick said. “And that’s a credit to them. I mean, they really take the emotion out of the game. They’re super tight-knit. They don’t complain to the officials, and maybe they’re the beneficiaries of that, I don’t know.”
Pistons continue winning streak to take 2-0 lead
Cade Cunningham had 25 points and 10 assists and Tobias Harris scored 21 points as the Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 107-97 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round series.
Game 3 is on Saturday in Cleveland, where the Cavs were 4-0 in the first round against Toronto.
The top-seeded Pistons have won five straight games since Orlando put them on the brink of elimination in the first round.
Cade Cunningham led the Detroit Pistons to another victory
Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points and Jarrett Allen had 22 points and seven rebounds, bouncing back from a poor performance in Game 1 for the fourth-seeded Cavs.
James Harden, though, missed 10 of 13 shots and was limited to 10 points. Harden had four turnovers, including one with 33 seconds left when the Cavs trailed by just six.
Cleveland’s Max Strus scored just three points after he had 19 in the series opener. The Cavaliers went 0 for 11 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter, with Strus having four of the misses.
Detroit’s Duncan Robinson had 17 points, making 5-9 three-pointers, and Daniss Jenkins came off the bench to score 14 points, his third straight game in double figures.
Cleveland made the first shot and didn’t lead again until Evan Mobley’s dunk put the visitors ahead 81-79 early in the fourth quarter.
The Pistons led by 11 points in the first quarter and 14 in the second quarter, but they didn’t pull away until the final minutes.
The Cavs scored the first six points of the final quarter and Detroit responded with plays at both ends of the court.
Robinson had a tiebreaking three-pointer with 9:40 left and Cunningham made a three-pointer to put the Pistons ahead by nine points with 2:12 to go, sealing the victory.
The Pistons also won Game 1 by 10 points with both Cunningham and Mitchell scoring 23 points.
Cavs reserve guard Sam Merrill missed Game 2 with a hamstring injury after he was hurt in in the series opener. He averaged 12.8 points during the regular season and scored in double digits twice in the seven-game, first-round series against the Raptors.
NORMAN — Oklahoma freshmen Kendall Wells and Kai Minor have been among the best players in college softball this season.
So it’s no surprise that the pair are both included on the NFCA Freshman of the Year top 10 list.
Wells is one home run away from tying the NCAA single-season home run record. She sits at 36 home runs entering the SEC Tournament.
Top-ranked Oklahoma (48-7) opens the tournament against Georgia at approximately 7 p.m. Thursday. The game will be braodcast on the SEC Network.
Wells is hitting .367 with 79 RBIs and 64 runs scored.
She broke the NCAA record for home runs by a freshman with her 31st home run April 11 at Texas, then broke Jocelyn Alo‘s program record with her 35th home run April 24 vs. Georgia.
Sooners coach Patty Gasso has also praised Wells’ defense at catcher.
“Her hustle is at another level,” Gasso said. “… If you watch the quickness that she picks up bunts, I mean, she is jumping out. She is making some phenomenal defensive plays, and I care as much about that as I do about the way she’s hitting the ball.”
Minor is hitting .438, best among OU’s regulars. She leads the team with 71 hits, and has 13 doubles, six triples and eight home runs. She’s also stolen 17 bases.
She’s also been a plus defender, with no errors and an assist in 56 chances in centerfield.
In last weekend’s series win at Texas A&M, Minor had an RBI triple to break a late tie in the Sooners’ 4-3 win to clinch a share of the SEC regular-season title and then hit a leadoff home run in the series finale to help them win the title outright.
Gasso has called her the team’s tone setter at the top of the order.
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Three finalists will be announced May 20, with the winner named May 26 ahead of the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
Four Sooners have won NFCA Freshman of the Year honors since the award was introduced in 2014.
Paige Parker was the first OU winner in 2015, followed by Jocelyn Alo in 2018, Tiare Jennings in 2021 and Jordy Bahl in 2022.
Florida’s Taylor Shumaker won the award last year.
Minor and Wells are the ninth and 10th Sooners to be on the top 10 list with the most recent being Ella Parker in 2024.
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Edmond Police Department says no fatalities from Arcadia Lake shooting
Sergeant James Hamm with the Edmond Police Department said there were zero fatalities out of the 23 confirmed individuals injured in a shooting at Arcadia Lake on Sunday.
EDMOND, OK − An 18-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday, May 6, in connection with a mass shooting that left one woman dead and 22 others injured at an “unsanctioned party” by an Oklahoma lake, police said.
Jaylan Davis, of Oklahoma City, was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon in response to the shooting, according to police. Gunfire erupted during a nighttime party on May 3 at Arcadia Lake near the Scissortail Campground in Edmond, a suburb of north Oklahoma City.
During a news conference on May 6, Edmond Police Chief J.D. Younger said the initial charge against Davis was in the process of being upgraded to felony murder after an 18-year-old woman died from injuries sustained during the shooting. Police identified her as Avianna Smith-Gray.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna confirmed in a news release that Davis will be charged with felony murder in the first degree over the shooting death “at the unsanctioned gathering.” His bond had been set at $1 million on a complaint of assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
Investigators believe the incident began with a “disturbance” between two people attending the gathering and escalated into an altercation between rival gang members, Younger said. Authorities also believe that there is at least one more suspect in the shooting.
“During the altercation, multiple subjects produced firearms and discharged in excess of 80 rounds, striking numerous individuals,” Younger said at the news conference.
What happened in the Oklahoma party shooting?
The shooting took place shortly after 9 p.m. local time on May 3 at Arcadia Lake, according to police. Officers were already responding to an 8:51 p.m. call on May 3 of loud music at a party at the lake when the shooting occurred, Younger said.
A total of 23 victims had gunfire-related injuries, including six “juveniles as young as 15 years of age,” according to the police chief.
Police previously said the incident occurred during an “unsanctioned party that began after dark and was advertised across multiple social media platforms, drawing a large crowd of young adults from across the metro area.” The party was not a permitted or reserved gathering, according to police.
Authorities had received multiple 911 calls reporting shots fired and responding officers located multiple people with injuries “ranging in severity,” police previously reported.
A person of interest in the shooting told investigators that Davis was “the primary aggressor,” a police detective said in an arrest affidavit. The person of interest said Davis was a member of the North Highland Piru gang and had recently gotten into a fight with “a known member of Hoover,” according to the affidavit.
The person “advised that this fight caused havoc between Jaylan and the Hoover gang members in Oklahoma City,” the affidavit states. The person also said a shooting victim, Daviion Wyckoff, told him in a phone call that Davis, also known as 3zzy, “arrived at the party and started shooting,” according to the affidavit.
Police previously identified suspect in shooting as member of a gang
In a May 4 search of the suspect’s home, police found ammunition that was the same brand as spent casings recovered from the crime scene, according to the affidavit. His mother said he had left on May 3 to attend a party at Lake Hefner with two of his friends, the affidavit states.
Davis has been arrested before, including after drive-by shootings in Oklahoma City in 2023 and 2024, court records show. Oklahoma City police described him in a 2024 court affidavit as a member of the North Highland Park Blood gang.
He has been prosecuted in Oklahoma County District Court both as a juvenile and as a youthful offender, the court records show. A March 27 “treatment and service plan” filed in court called for him to “explore positive alternatives to living a gang lifestyle.”
He turned himself in on the morning of May 6 to the U.S. Marshals Service, officials said. He was taken to the Edmond Police Department and was arrested.
Victim remembered as a ‘loving’ and ‘caring’ person
Police had confirmed on May 5 that “an 18-year-old young woman has passed away from injuries sustained in the Arcadia Lake shooting.” The chief medical examiner confirmed her body was being examined on May 6.
“Our thoughts are with her loved ones, as well as all those affected by this tragic incident,” police said in a statement on Facebook.
The victim was identified by police and on a GoFundMe page as Smith-Gray. On the GoFundMe page, Smith-Gray’s sister described her as a “loving” and “caring” person.
“She was good with kids doesn’t matter the age they all just happen to love her, she loved to dance, do hair, sing & so much more,” the online fundraiser states. “My sister was so talented a very good athlete and she was so so smart.”
“Avianna was so full of life and loved spending time with her family, friends, her boyfriend,” Smith-Gray’s sister wrote on the GoFundMe page. “She was 18 years old, just graduated and was waiting to walk that stage!”
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