By: Patti Weaver

(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater man, who remains held without bail in the Payne County Jail, appeared in court Tuesday with defense attorney Royce Hobbs on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the fatal shooting of a Tonkawa man in the neck on the east side of Stillwater on July 7.

Former Pawnee resident Darwin Lonestar Marcel Doyal, 29, who was listed as homeless on the charge, was arrested by Stillwater police at 4:15 a.m. on July 7 as a suspect in the shooting of Jared Lance Roybal, 23, after a 16-year-old boy identified Doyal as the gunman, an affidavit filed alleged. At his arraignment Tuesday, Doyal was ordered to return to court on Sept. 9 when he can seek a preliminary hearing, a court official said.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Doyal could be given a life prison term or the death penalty. If convicted of the alternative charge of first-degree manslaughter, Doyal could be given a minimum of a four-year prison term to a maximum of a life sentence.

If convicted of an additional count of being a felon in possession of a 9mm pistol, Doyal could be given as much as a 10-year prison term, court records show.

According to an affidavit by Stillwater Police Detective Inspector Greg Miller, the shooting victim was driven in a van at 1:42 a.m. on July 7 to a convenience store at 601 E. 6th Avenue by a man who ran inside and asked for medical assistance.

A 16-year-old boy was present with the victim when Stillwater police and medical personnel arrived, the affidavit said.

The boy, who is not from Stillwater and is unfamiliar with the area, said that he was with the victim when he was shot, the affidavit alleged.

The boy “assisted in backtracking the path driven from 601 E. 6th Ave. to the shooting scene in the area of Raintree Drive and Peachtree Drive in Stillwater,” the affidavit alleged.

The victim had been driving the van with a man in the front passenger seat while the boy was in the rear cabin area, the affidavit alleged.

“Jared (the victim) approached a car driving in the opposite direction. The car had stopped and the driver yelled at Jared Roybal. Jared yelled ‘What?’ and was shot in the neck by the driver of the car,” the affidavit alleged.

“Jared Roybal was in the driver seat of the van, with his door closed, when he was shot in the neck,” the affidavit alleged.

The boy “saw the shooter, but did not know him. That person drove away from the shooting location. There was at least one other person in the car driven by the shooter,” the affidavit alleged.

The victim remained in the van, while he was driven to 601 E. 6th Ave. looking for help,” the affidavit alleged.

“Officers located a white car parked in the area that matched the description of the vehicle driven by the shooter,” the affidavit alleged.

When the boy saw the car, he believed it was the shooter’s vehicle, the affidavit alleged. The car was registered to Doyal, the affidavit alleged.

At 2 a.m. on July 7, Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Dalton Ross showed a photo of Doyal to the boy, who confirmed Doyal was the person that shot Roybal, the affidavit alleged.

Roybal was transported to the Stillwater Medical Center and then airlifted to the OU Medical Center, where he died at 4:08 a.m. on July 7, the affidavit said.

In court documents, 35 individuals are listed as prosecution witnesses, more than half of whom are Stillwater police officers.

According to a background report compiled for the court in 2012 on two separate felony charges of aggravated assault and battery, Doyal reported “he completed the eighth grade in Pawnee public schools and was suspended in the ninth grade and instructed not to return because of his abusive language towards a teacher and the principal.”

In his last aggravated assault and battery case, Doyal pleaded guilty in 2012 to repeatedly punching a man in the jaw, punching his sister in her right eye and punching another man on his left ear, all on Oct. 13, 2011, in a trailer park on S. Boomer Road. One of the residents at the trailer park told Doyal “if he didn’t go home, he was going to call the landlord,” according to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Henninger.

Doyal “then reached behind his back and stated, ‘if you call him, I will shoot you,"” the affidavit alleged. That man told Doyal to shoot because he was contacting the landlord, the affidavit alleged.

The resident “was talking to the landlord via phone when Darwin (Doyal) hit him knocking his glasses off and cutting his jaw and ear,” before taking the man’s phone and running, the affidavit alleged.

In that three-count case, Doyal was sentenced to 180 days in the Payne County Jail followed by four and one-half years of probation with an order to pay restitution for punching a man in the jaw repeatedly, court records show. Doyal was given a concurrent 180-day jail term for punching his sister in her right eye and a concurrent 90-day jail term for punching another man on his left ear, court records show.

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