A Bokchito man charged with first-degree murder for the shooting death of his son pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of firstdegree manslaughter last week.
Fifty-four-year-old Michael David Bragg was given a 15-year sentence with the last 8.5 years suspended for the death of his son, Michael Jay Bragg, 34. He also pleaded guilty to possession of firearm after former felony conviction and was sentenced to 10 years with the last 3.5 years suspended on that conviction.
Bragg was charged on May 6, 2025, after Bryan County sheriff’s deputies responded to a shooting in the early morning hours on May 3 at property on Highway 70, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
“When deputies arrived on scene, they discovered 34-year-old Michael Jay Bragg deceased,” OSBI said, in a news release. “It was determined he had suffered from an apparent gunshot wound.”
OSBI agents and deputies arrested Michael David Bragg, according to a news release, and investigators determined the two were in an altercation before the shooting, according to OSBI.
In other murder cases, 65-year-old Herbert Eugene Frank Burnett, pleaded no contest last week to firstdegree manslaughter for the September 2023 death of Jason Waller, 43, on Highway 70 in Mead that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said was a road rage incident because Burnett was chasing Waller and Burnett’s pickup struck Waller’s Cadillac, causing it to crash during a rainstorm.
The case went to trial in May, but that ended in a mistrial due to juror misconduct.
In other crime news, the U.S. Marshals Eastern District Fugitive Task Force on July 17 captured James Lee Kirby, 49, in southeastern Oklahoma and he was on the State of Texas most wanted fugitives, Bryan County Sheriff Joey Tucker announced.
In Bryan County, Kirby was wanted on first-degree rape, incest and bail jumping charges, according to online court records.
In Texas, Kirby was wanted for aggravated sexual assault, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety website.
“This arrest is another example of what can be accomplished when local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies work together with a common mission: protecting our communities and ensuring that dangerous fugitives have no safe place to hide,” Tucker said, in a social media post.
