Date: 03-10-2003

Case Style: State of Oklahoma v. Lanita Sue Bateman

Case Number: CF-2002-46

Judge: Ray C. Elliott

Court: District Court, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma

Plaintiff's Attorney: Assistant District Attorney Ada Fern Smith, Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Defendant's Attorney: Charles Andrew Adams, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for Bateman

Description: Defendant was charged with first degree murder, robbery with a firearm and conspiracy to commit a felony robbery with a dangerous weapon for her involvement in the shooting death of Ronald Ruben Wipf, age 19, in Oklahoma City on January 1, 2002. Arnold Jonathaon Kleinsasseer, age 21, and Ronald Wipf, age 19, both from Montana, were passing through Oklahoma on December 31, 2001. They stopped at the Bricktown restaurant area of Oklahoma City that evening where they met the defendant and Brandy Lynn Warden. The young men agreed to go to a local Ramada Inn with the women and to pay for sex with them. After arriving at the motel, Bateman made a phone call to brother Termane Wood and Zjaiton Tyrone Wood to come to the motel and rob Wipf and Kleinsasser. The Wood brothers shot and killed Wipf but Kleinsasser escaped from the scene.

Outcome: Guilty as charged and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 110 years.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unavailable

Defendant's Experts: Unavailable

Comments: Editor's Note: Brandy Lynn Warden, age 21, was sentenced by Judge Elliott to 45 years in prison on April 18, 2003 and will testify against the Wood brothers when they are tried later this year.