Clayton Hays convicted by Beckham County jury of first-degree murder in the admitted killing of firefighter Colter Vaught
At approximately 10:30 pm on Friday, October 3, a jury of twelve Beckham County men and women returned a guilty verdict against a 38-year-old Carter man.
The defendant, Clayton Samson Hays, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after being found guilty of shooting Colter Jake Vaught outside of Vaught’s workplace, Patterson Oil Tools.
The murder occurred on January 11, 2024.
Patterson is located on the 900 block of South Merritt Road.
Vaught was a resident of Sayre and was 42 years old at the time of his death. Although Vaught graduated from Sayre High School and had spent much of his life in Sayre, he had also spent a significant portion of his life in the Carter area and was a member of the Delhi Fire Department.
The jury trial started on Monday, September 29. The previous week, the Beckham County District Attorney’s Office and Hays’s defense team, which was led by Dan Pond of Oklahoma Citybased Swain Law Group, worked to compile the jury.
More than 150 Beckham County residents were summoned to be potential jurors, which is believed to be one of the largest jury pools in Beckham County’s history.
The prosecution was led by Ricky McPhearson, with longtime Beckham County Assistant District Attorney Gina Webb sitting in the second seat.
The prosecution’s argument laid out their belief of how the shooting occurred, along with the motivation that Hays was acting out of anger and jealousy for Vaught.
The defense argued that Hays had acted in self-defense, alleging that Vaught had parked his vehicle and attempted to climb into Hays’s semi-truck to attack him.
Hays and his semi-truck were parked outside of Vaught’s place of employment at the time of the shooting.
Pond, on Hays’s behalf, argued that Hays was in that place not to do harm or provoke Vaught, but because Hays’s shop was located in close proximity to Patterson Oil Tools.
Hays had stated that he was in the process of driving his semi to Kansas for work.
In the original affidavit filed against Hays, Beckham County Sheriff’s Office investigators noted a “long history” between Hays and Vaught.
Despite the documented “long history” between the two men, the jury heard audio of Hays’s initial 911 call immediately following the shooting, where he told the 911 dispatcher that he did not know the identity of the man he had just shot.
The “long history” revolved around Vaught’s previous marriage to Brianne Silk, with whom he had two children.
After Vaught and Silk had divorced, Silk entered into a relationship with Hays.
That relationship produced a third child.
However, after Silk and Hays had ended their relationship, she and Vaught reconciled.
The prosecution produced text messages from Hays to Vaught dating back to 2018 that Hays admitted were “childish.”
The prosecution also showed the jury a public Facebook post that Hays had made in the months before Vaught’s shooting death that centered around Vaught being around Hays’s daughter.
Hays included a photograph of Vaught with Hays’s daughter in that post. He then wrote a post stating that Vaught was hanging around his daughter because Vaught’s minor children “suck” and calling himself the “cooler” man.
The prosecution also showed that Vaught had responded to the post.
In his post, Vaught told Hays that his daughter was a great child but that his minor children did not “suck.”
The prosecution also centered part of its argument on an altercation in early December 2023.
This occurred at the rural home of Vaught’s now deceased father, Lynn Vaught.
At the time, the Vaught family had been told through hospice that Lynn Vaught would be dying likely within the day after a lengthy illness.
On this evening, Hays admitted that he and a friend had been to Boomtown and had “a few beers.”
During this time, Hays texted Silk about their young daughter, saying he wanted to see her. Testimony showed that Hays regularly saw his child and would keep her for overnight visits.
Through the text exchange, Silk informed Hays that she was open to that, but that the family had been told “Papa” was likely to die within a few hours.
On the stand, Hays told ADA McPhearson that he believed Silk was referring to her own father because he was known by the same name.
However, McPhearson repeatedly asked if Hays had any reason to believe that Silk’s father would be dying.
Hays admitted that he had no reason to believe that.
Text messages showed that Silk had informed Hays that their daughter was not at Lynn Vaught’s residence.
Hays still stated that he was coming to Lynn Vaught’s home.
Hays said he knew Lynn Vaught lived around the section line, but he also called another person to verify exactly where the house was.
During this time, Hays and Silk exchanged a phone call.
On the stand, Hays said that Silk had asked him not to come to the house of the dying man.
Silk also texted Hays and told him they were at the R&R, a convenience store in Carter.
He and his friend still arrived at Lynn Vaught’s home despite knowing that his daughter was not there.
According to Hays’s testimony, he was shoved back into the passenger seat of the vehicle he had arrived in and was asked to leave. McPhearson asked Hays if he had then gone and gotten his daughter.
Hays admitted that he did not and instead went to Wheeler, Texas.
Another central witness for the prosecution was Hays’s former girlfriend.
This witness told the jury that Hays had previously said to her that he would kill Vaught if he could “get away with it” to prevent Vaught from being around Hays’s daughter.
Jurors also heard from the medical examiner’s office to explain physical evidence from the shooting.
The medical examiner testifi ed that Vaught’s body had no nitrates upon it. That testimony stated that, for the particular gun, a person or object would need to be at least 36 inches away from the weapon in order not to have nitrates.
Hays said on the stand that Vaught was trying to “come inside” the open window of his semi-truck.
Hays stated that Vaught had grabbed hold of both his arms. ADA McPhearson asked, “So then you had to know that he did not have a weapon in either hand?”
McPhearson also noted that Hays had no bruises or scratches on his body or face, which raises the question of whether Vaught had actually been that close.
Hays also admitted that the window of his semi-truck was small and would have been difficult for an adult to crawl through.
Hays still insisted that he was unsure if Vaught was armed.
Although Vaught had no weapon on his person at the time of the shooting, investigators found two firearms — a handgun and a long-range rifle — inside his pickup truck parked closely by.
Vaught had emerged from that truck only seconds before.
Hays also both stated and demonstrated for the jury that he had been holding the gun close to his own face at the time he fired the weapon.
Investigators found that no gunshot residue, or GSR, was found on Hays’s face or steering wheel, which the prosecution argued meant that he must have been holding the gun down further.
Th e prosecution also argued that, had Hays shot Vaught from the angle he claimed, the bullet would have had to travel through the semi’s door.
Hays’s defense argued that it was reasonable for Hays not to have any bruising on his arms because he was wearing a heavy wool-type sweater. Hays’s defense called this a reasonable explanation for why he might not have had bruising.
Hays’s defense called a defense expert who gave jurors different scenarios where the shooting could have happened, as Hays recounted.
Hays also stated that he had a beard at the time of the shooting, which could have made scratches or bruises difficult to see.
The five-day trial also included testimony from multiple first responders.
Through this, jurors learned that Hays had sent text messages in a group message to Silk and Vaught both the day before the murder and the day of the murder.
Again, Hays admitted on the stand that these texts could be seen as “childish.”
In one of the last texts, Hays told the couple to stop “stonewalling” him and said they must communicate.
Approximately 26 minutes had passed between the last text Hays sent in the group message until his 911 call saying that he had shot a man.
Hays had initially been charged with manslaughter.
After Hays was able to be bonded out of jail, he was quickly charged with outraging public decency after he collected cat feces and dumped it upon a memorial set up in Vaught’s memory outside of Patterson Oil Tools.
The courtroom was packed throughout the weeklong trial, primarily with friends and family members of Vaught’s.
Hays also had a small group of friends and family who attended the trial faithfully.
Hays was the final witness. Before the defense and prosecution made their closing arguments, both sides could make arguments about the rules of what the jury would be allowed to consider.
Attorneys from both sides met privately with presiding Judge Donna Dirickson.
Both sides then returned to the chamber to make their public arguments about the rules and the charges.
The jury was not present during this time.
The defense argued that the jury should only be allowed to consider first-degree murder and not both it and first-degree manslaughter in the heat of passion.
Attorney Pond stated that he believed the two are contradictory and that jurors should only be able to select one.
The prosecution argued that jurors should be able to consider both charges.
The judge ruled with the prosecution, giving jurors both options.
The jury received the case at approximately 8 p.m. to deliberate and give their ruling.
The jurors then returned approximately 2-2.5 hours later with a guilty verdict for first-degree murder.
Jurors were also given the choice between sentencing Hays to life with the possibility of parole or life without the possibility of parole.
In Oklahoma, life is considered 45 years up to natural life.
Because of Oklahoma’s 85% mandate for violent crimes, parole cannot be considered for 38.5 years.
Hays received life with the possibility of parole.
He will be formally sentenced in November.
