BETHANY, Okla. (KFOR) – One month after a Bethany man was found dead in a drainage ditch, his family is speaking out against the man facing charges in connection with his death.
37-year-old Jason Parker’s body was found in a drainage ditch at NW 29th Terrance and N. Peniel Ave. on the evening of Nov. 10.
The next morning, Jordan Evans was booked into jail in connection with this case. He has since been charged with first-degree murder.
“We need justice for him,” said Parker’s sister Melodee Shepherd. “I strongly believe in the death penalty, but if we can see maybe a life sentence, I would be OK with that.”
The family is now grieving over their loved one who was killed one month before his 38th birthday. Shepherd says their grandmother, who raised them both, took it the hardest.
“She received the death notification of 1:30 in the morning,” she said. “It’s just broken her heart into pieces.”
Shepherd says the man accused in the crime lives just a block away from her.
Parker’s cousin, Mandy Carerra, now has to drive past the location where he was found every day.
“We played in that ditch as children,” she said. “Every single day, whether I want to remember that or not, it’s there. I see it. I see the cross. I know that that’s where my cousin lost his life.”
According to court documents, Evans is accused of shooting Parker in the chest. But that he also was the one who called 911 to tell authorities about Parker’s unresponsive body. Parker ran and collapsed in the ditch after the shooting.
The documents say Evans told his girlfriend he shot Parker and told his mother he got in an altercation with Parker. But the Parker family doesn’t believe his story.
“He followed my brother,” Shepherd said. “He shot him and he watched my brother fall in a ditch and die.”
And now as they await a trial, the family has to bond together to take care of the two daughters he left behind.
“We will spend a lot of time with his girls; graduation, walking down the aisle, driving,” Shepherd said. “I don’t know what the future looks like, that we’re going to try to do it together as a family.”