Woman Charged With Second-Degree Murder in Okla. Fire Death

Grady County prosecutors have filed a second-degree murder charge against a Chickasha, Okla., woman who allegedly set fire to the apartment of a blind man for whom she was caring.

Andrea D. Sledge was formally charged on Oct. 2, four days after police said Sledge refused to take a polygraph test and requested an attorney during questioning about last week’s fire and the death of Maurice Givens.

Sledge, 43, was Givens’ caretaker and had been living with him for about a month when flames consumed his unit at the Avalon Apartments.

“We strongly believe this was arson,” Assistant District Attorney Leslie March said. “As far as the other very questionable situation inside the apartment, she offered no explanations for that.”

According to police reports, Sledge told two Lawton firefighters that Givens was still in his bedroom and couldn’t get out. Lawton Fire Chief Bart Hadley and Assistant Chief Dewayne Burk, who were testing new equipment in the area that day and responded to the fire, crawled into the burning building but couldn’t get into the bedroom because of a cabinet blocked the door.

“Due to his physical condition, in the best of circumstances, Mr. Givens would have had a very difficult time exiting the residence,” March said.

After pushing the furniture aside, the men found Givens in the room on his back, according to reports. He was taken to a local hospital and then flown by helicopter to Integris Baptist Medical Center’s burn unit in Oklahoma City. He died there two days later.

During the ambulance ride, paramedics found his feet had been bound with telephone cord.

According to police reports, Sledge gave officers a false name and birthdate during her first interview. She then told officers she had been in the living room and Givens was watching television in his bedroom when Givens began pounding on his door and yelling that his room was on fire and the door wouldn’t open.

Sledge took the cordless phone outside and tried to call 911 but had to go back inside to get the phone to work, the police report said.

Sledge told officers she did not know how the cabinet ended up in front of the door or how the phone cord got around Givens’ feet.

Bond was set for Sledge at $250,000 and a preliminary hearing conference date was set for Oct. 20.

Information from: The Chickasha News-Express, www.chickashanews.com and KFOR-TV, www.kfor.com.