{"id":19775,"date":"2024-04-18T16:52:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T21:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norwoodlegal.com\/?p=19775"},"modified":"2024-04-23T10:12:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T15:12:39","slug":"noble-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norwoodlegal.com\/noble-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"After a judge freed him, Tulsa police tried to send a Norwood.Law client back to prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Demarchoe Carpenter, left, and co-defendant Malcolm Scott talk to the media about being declared innocent of a 1994 murder.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Image by <\/span><\/i>Dylan Goforth\/The Frontier<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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By G.W. Schulz<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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During a recorded conversation on Aug. 12, 2019, Lt. Sean \u201cSticks\u201d Larkin of the Tulsa Police Department made an extraordinary statement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In the recording, Larkin suggested that Norwood.Law client Demarchoe Carpenter had somehow outsmarted authorities three years before. That\u2019s when a Tulsa judge found that Carpenter had been wrongfully convicted of a 1994 murder. He was set free after 22 years in prison.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cBut we\u2019re gonna put him away on this one, okay?\u201d Lt. Larkin said on the tape.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Larkin told this to a man named Sheldon Reed who was recovering at St. John\u2019s Hospital after being shot five times on Aug. 6, 2019, in Tulsa. The promise to Reed made it appear that Lt. Larkin and the Tulsa police were planning extrajudicial frontier justice where the courts had exonerated Demarchoe Carpenter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Two days after the hospital interview, authorities issued a warrant for Demarchoe Carpenter\u2019s arrest in the shooting of Sheldon Reed. It was happening all over again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Later in court, Lt. Larkin would say he was simply trying to reassure the victim that police were on the case. But at that moment, Larkin had not interviewed any other witnesses before determining that Carpenter was the perpetrator based on Reed\u2019s claims. Larkin admitted this under oath.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Lt. Larkin isn\u2019t just a now-retired Tulsa cop. At the time of the Sheldon Reed shooting, Larkin\u2019s <\/span>extracurricular career as a media darling<\/span><\/a> was exploding. Tall and noticeably handsome, Larkin in recent years has become a social-media star, a podcast host, a book author, and the co-host of popular police-reality shows including the smash-hit \u201cLive PD.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Meanwhile, in both the 1994 and the 2019 cases against Demarchoe Carpenter, there was no physical evidence ever presented by the government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

What would a jury say this time?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Keep reading below for the whole story.<\/span><\/p>

Need help with a legal dispute? It\u2019s not just criminal defense we practice. If you find yourself tied up in a personal injury, business, or family conflict, Norwood.Law will bring the same commitment and skill to your corner that we did to the achingly true story of Demarchoe Carpenter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Visit Norwood.Law or call 918-582-6464 for a free consultation.<\/span><\/p>

\u2018No man at all\u2019<\/b><\/h2>

Demarchoe Carpenter had every right to worry about the Tulsa Police Department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Along with co-defendant Malcolm Scott, Carpenter had already spent 22 years in prison for murder before being found innocent and released. A Tulsa judge firmly declared in May of 2016 that the two men had not committed a 1994 drive-by killing on East 29th Street North.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Three years after their release from prison drew national headlines, it seemed to be happening once more for Demarchoe Carpenter. But who actually shot Sheldon Reed in 2019 was unclear from the start.<\/span><\/p>

\"Sheldon
Sheldon Reed drove to this Tulsa convenience store after he was shot five times in 2019. Image by G.W. Schulz<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>

Reed would testify in court that the man who shot him was Demarchoe Carpenter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

But Reed also said under oath that there were no disputes between the two men.<\/span><\/p>

When Reed had called 911, he couldn\u2019t say who shot him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Reed also posted a message on Facebook after the shooting:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not worried about pointing my finger at no man at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Then Reed took it down.<\/span><\/p>

Reed and Demarchoe Carpenter saw each other with no conflict two to three times a week in their neighborhoods prior to the shooting. The two men had known each other since Reed was young.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Prosecutors would later <\/span>claim in court that behind the shooting was a love triangle<\/span><\/a> involving Sheldon Reed, DeMarchoe Carpenter, and the woman Carpenter married when he was released from prison in 2016, Brandy Guest.<\/span><\/p>

Carpenter was charged with a felony in the new case on Aug. 14, 2019, just two days after Lt. Larkin had vowed to get him for the shooting of Sheldon Reed. Norwood.Law represented Carpenter in the case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

At Carpenter\u2019s preliminary hearing the following month, only one witness was sworn. Such hearings are designed to ensure prosecutors have sufficient evidence to take a case to trial.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The sole witness at the preliminary hearing was Sheldon Reed. Demarchoe Carpenter was sent to trial.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A driveby shooting<\/b><\/h2>

Demarchoe Carpenter had already fought a war for his life inside America\u2019s unrelenting criminal-justice system before Tulsa police appeared with the shooting case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In the late summer of 1994, a driveby shooting took place outside of a party on East 29th Street North in Tulsa. A 19-year-old teen girl was killed. Two others were injured.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The two survivors told police they could not see the occupants of the car. It was dark, the car was moving, and there was gunfire. After being interviewed by police, however, they were <\/span>suddenly pointing to Demarchoe Carpenter and co-defendant Malcolm Scott<\/span><\/a> as the perpetrators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

But police traced the gun and car used in the driveby to the home of someone else \u2013 a man named Michael Wilson. He told authorities that he had not loaned the car or gun to anyone else.<\/span><\/p>