Federal trial begins in July 2016 death of child
Apr. 3—MUSKOGEE — Defense attorneys for a Krebs man accused of drowning his infant daughter in a southeast Oklahoma pond in July 2016 said that police officers exacerbated the child's death at the scene.
A federal trial started Monday in the case accusing Devin Sizemore, 28, of drowning his 21-month-old daughter, Emily, in a pond near Krebs on July 15, 2016, with his defense attorney Lisa Peebles telling the jury during opening statements that the man didn't intend to hurt his child and officers helped the wrong person at the scene.
"He would never hurt the one person he loved in the entire world," Peebles said. "Officers focused on the wrong person. It should have been Emily."
Sizemore was indicted in May 2021 in the Eastern District of Oklahoma for murder in Indian Country, second-degree murder in Indian Country, voluntary manslaughter in Indian Country, child abuse in Indian Country, assault resulting in serious bodily injury in Indian Country, and assault and battery on a police officer in Indian Country. He was also accused of assaulting then-Krebs Police Officer Jack Suter during his arrest.
Defense attorneys claimed there is no proof on how Emily got into the water. They argued the child's death was an accident because she could have fallen into the pond herself during the commotion of trying to get Sizemore into custody.
The defense argues officers should have immediately begun to rescue Emily from a pond near Krebs Lake Road when she was first spotted in the water instead of focusing over four minutes on getting Sizemore out of the water and into custody.
Peebles also told jurors officers did not perform proper CPR on Emily prior to medics arriving and taking the child to the McAlester Regional Health Center where she was pronounced dead.
During an interview with prosecutors, Sizemore told investigators he put his daughter in a pond to "baptize her, because of all the evil in the world" and that he held her head under the water for "maybe 30 seconds."
Sizemore claimed to investigators that "something went wrong" but he was able to bring his daughter back to life after performing CPR on her.
"It wasn't an accident," U.S. Attorney Lisa Man told jurors during her opening statement. "It was murder. Emily should be turning nine this year. Instead, she didn't even turn two."
Man told jurors that the defense would have a "passionate argument" on why Sizemore did not kill Emily and told the jury to pay attention to the voices of the doctors and officers who tried to revive and save the child.
"They will speak responsibility and regret for not finding her and helping her," Man said.
The U.S. attorney told jurors that this trial is not about Emily and was about holding a killer responsible.
"His actions and his actions alone caused Emily's death," Man said. "This trial is not about Emily. This trial is about holding her father, and killer, responsible."
A Pittsburg County jury originally convicted Sizemore in September 2018 of first-degree murder in Emily's 2016 death. The conviction was overturned in 2021 after the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals applied the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma to the Choctaw Nation.
The trial is expected to last seven to eight days in U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White's courtroom at the federal courthouse in Muskogee.
