By Matt Dinger Staff
The Oklahoman
GUTHRIE, Okla. — Family of slain Logan County sheriff’s deputy David Wade remember their loved one, and announced their support in seeking the death penalty for the man accused of killing him.
David James Wade, 40, was shot in the face and body the morning of April 18 while serving an eviction notice in Mulhall. He died from his wounds that day.
“I can speak for my entire family when I tell you the last couple of months of have been tremendously difficult for us. We’ve been so incredibly shocked by the loss of David that most of us have been unable to publicly talk about it,” brother Jerry Wade said Sunday morning at a news conference outside the sheriff’s office.
About two dozen of David Wade’s family stood behind him as his younger brother read a prepared statement.
“On the morning of April 18th, a good man, a loving father and a faithful public servant was ripped from this earth long before his time should have been over. But if the enormity of our loss can be in some way measured by the response to it, then you have only to take a look at the community, the state, and the country in which he served to appreciate its magnitude,” he said.
“To me, he was always just my big brother. The boy I shared a childhood with, the man I proudly shared military service with. I always be looking up to him,” Jerry Wade said.
David Wade enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard shortly after high school. The two were members of Company C of the 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, eventually serving together on a deployment to Bosnia in the 1990s.
“I do not believe that his memory will soon be forgotten. But not only does he leave behind a legacy of who he was, there’s also the matter of his unnecessary death to be reconciled,” he said.
Nathan Aaron LeForce, 45, was taken into custody after a few hours. He is charged in Logan County District Court with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and larceny of a motor vehicle.
Logan County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas announced in April that she is seeking the death penalty in the case.
The district attorney called LeForce’s actions heinous, atrocious and cruel.
“Let there be no question that we fully support District Attorney Thomas’s decision to pursue the death penalty. I have every faith that the justice system will deliver what my brother and those left behind missing him rightfully deserve. The scales will be weighed and evil will reap what it has sowed,” Jerry Wade said.
“Anytime we think about this event that occurred on April 18th, it’s a sombering event to all of us that put the uniform on every day, leave our family to come out here to protect yours, knowing that every day that we come to work may be the last time we see our families,” Sheriff Damon Devereaux said.
“It’s hard for us to go through a tragedy such as this, losing one of our brothers, and knowing that tomorrow we still have a job to do,” Devereaux said.
“We are healing, but we’ll never be whole,” he said.
LeForce’s preliminary hearing is seat for Aug. 7.
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©2017 The Oklahoman