By Patti Weaver

 

    (Stillwater, Okla.) — In an unusual development in a murder case, a Glencoe mechanic — who allegedly told several individuals he was a hitman offered $30,000 to kill someone — waived his right to a preliminary hearing last week on charges he fatally shot a young customer whose body was found on rural property where disassembled vehicles were located.
    Christopher Michael Somers, 22 and his employer, Michael Warren Ritter, 52, of Stillwater, were bound over for trial as co-defendants on charges they murdered Samuel Cade Crawford, 21, desecrated his corpse, and operated a chop shop in rural Glencoe on Aug. 29, 2023. Both were ordered jailed without bail pending their trial court arraignments in September.
    The body of Crawford, who had been missing for more than a week, was found in a hole on Sept. 9, 2023, the day after authorities in a helicopter spotted his disassembled truck on the rural Glencoe property of Ritter’s father, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing for Ritter last week.
    “We saw what we believed to be Sam Crawford’s truck disassembled. You could see the cab was placed on a trailer,” and the pickup bed in another location. There was an assortment of other parts on the property,” Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Agent Lynda Stevens testified.
    When Ritter was interviewed on Oct. 9, 2023, “He said he had no idea how the body got there,” the agent testified.
    During a Jan. 29, 2024, interview, Ritter “ended up telling us that Chris Somers told him he killed Sam Crawford. He said he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want anything to do with it,” the agent testified.
    On cross-examination, the agent testified that multiple individuals heard from Somers that he was a hitman offered $30,000 to kill someone.
    During the day-long preliminary hearing, in which testimony was difficult to hear due to a malfunctioning microphone system, witnesses said that several vehicles were found on the rural property on VFW Road that made them suspicious of a chop shop operation.
    A former Oklahoma resident, who testified by video from the state of Washington, said that he rented a house from Ritter for 10 or 11 years in Cushing, but got behind during the pandemic while he was going through health problems. He said he owed a year’s rent to Ritter.
    On June 23, 2022, he reported that his truck, a ’98 Dodge one ton, was stolen, he said. “Mike (Ritter) and another gentleman came to my property and requested rent. I didn’t have any money. The next morning, the truck was missing. I suggested Mike did steal it because I owed him back rent. I saw my truck parked in front of his house on Lowry. The police officer said he could not find a serial number. The bed had been swapped,” he testified.
    An insurance investigator contacted by the Payne County Sheriff’s Office, which had a search warrant, testified that he was asked to look at vehicles on the VFW property. “I located parts on vehicles that had been stolen. I did see stripped vehicles,” but said he could not disclose where secondary IDs were placed on various parts of a vehicle to aid in their identification.
    A woman, who had dated Somers, testified that he said he was a diesel mechanic paid $700 a week by Ritter, and she knew that Somers “sold parts that came from vehicles.” She said that when Somers saw a helicopter over the rural Glencoe property on Sept. 8, 2023, he said “that’s not good.” She testified she thought Somers would be arrested for murder.
    A man who lived close to Ritter’s father’s property testified he “did a backhoe job for Ritter at the VFW property — he asked me to dig a trash hole on Wednesday. It was set up for a Saturday, Aug. 30, 2023.” He testified he was directed where to dig the hole while Ritter and Somers remained in the area. He testified that Ritter “eventually gave me $40.”
    “I came home and the OSBI was on the property. They asked me a lot of questions. Somebody was murdered or found in the hole that day,” he testified — adding he hasn’t spoken to Ritter since the day he dug the hole.