Sources close to the Barton County Sheriff's Department indicate that murder suspect Jim Edward Ryan was intoxicated when he allegedly killed a 38-year-old Lamar man. The death reportedly came as a result of blunt force trauma.
Court records indicate Ryan has had previous difficulties with alcohol, including at least two DWI convictions in the last two years, one in Jasper County and one in Dade County.
Court records show Ryan was arrested March 6, 2002, in Dade County on the DWI charge and pleaded guilty on July 25, 2002. He was sentenced to six months in jail, the sentence was suspended, and he received two years of unsupervised probation, which court records show he completed successfully as of July 25, 2004.
However, Ryan was arrested May 21, 2002, by the Jasper County Sheriff's Department on a misdemeanor DWI charge. He was also charged with driving while revoked for failure to submit to a breathalyzer test. On Aug. 23, 2002, Ryan told Judge Joe Schoeberl that the public defender's office would not represent him. Five days later, he still had not found an attorney and on Sept. 10, Ryan was still without representation.
Finally, he hired Jared Thomas to represent him. A jury trial was scheduled before the trial took place, Ryan pleaded guilty. He failed to appear for his sentencing hearing, then failed to appear at the next scheduled hearing in April 2003.
His bond was forfeited and a warrant was issued for his arrest. On May 12, Judge Schoeberl received a certified letter from Ryan, who said he had mistaken the court date and thought it was supposed to be in May instead of in April, plus he had not been able to come because of "the bad weather."
On June 10, 2003, Ryan was sentenced to four days in jail and given credit for time served, and fined $300. Court records indicate Ryan had successfully completed an Oklahoma alcohol treatment program.
Jasper County court records show that Ryan did not complete paying his fine and costs until March 21, 2005.