By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County jury deliberated for one hour on May 1 before acquitting a 54-year-old man at the close of his four-day trial on charges of sexually abusing two girls at his rural residence.
William Daniel Turner could have been given two life prison terms if convicted of sexually abusing one girl between the ages of 7 and 12 between 2017 and 2022, and her 11-year-old sister in 2023.
Turner was arrested at his rural residence by Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Lew Kellison on Nov. 8, 2023, and jailed until Jan. 19, 2024, when he posted $150,000 bond, court records show.
According to a petition for an emergency protective order obtained by the girls’ mother on Nov. 9, 2023, the then 13-year-old told her mother that she had been sexually touched by Turner for several years, court records allege.
When the mother separately asked the then 11-year-old if anything had happened to her, “She said yes, but please don’t tell him,” the petition alleged.
During interviews at the Saville Child Advocacy Center in Stillwater on Nov. 8, 2023, both girls said that they had been sexually abused by Turner, the investigator alleged in his affidavit.
