Kala Lyles
Kala Lyles testified to twenty or thirty minutes of intercourse through the fly of Daniel’s uniform pants, hours before those pants were seized. The laboratory excluded her from every DNA profile on the fly. The patrol car’s records leave about eleven minutes at the school for everything she described, and her own estimate of the time grew with each telling. The jury acquitted on all four counts.
Hours before the pants were seized, and about eleven minutes at the school.
Lyles could not give a date. She told Detective Davis only that it happened at night and it was warm. The date came from Daniel’s records, which showed he had run her name shortly after 1:20 a.m. on June 18, 2014. Scott Adams 01535, 01538, 01540; Trial Tr. 3686:22–3688:25.
| Time | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| June 17, evening | Adaira Gardner’s alleged encounter. Her DNA was later found on the fly. | Spence Aff. ¶ 5 (2017) |
| June 18, 1:22 a.m. | Daniel stops Lyles at N.E. 16th and Lottie and runs her name. | Trial Tr. 3686–88 |
| 1:32 a.m. | He closes the call. | 3713:1–7 |
| 1:36–1:47 a.m. | The patrol car’s last moving reading near the school is 1:36:10. It is stationary at 1:41:10 and 1:46:10, and driving away by about 1:47. About eleven minutes, at most. | 3708:23–3709:12; 3712:19–25 |
| 2:02–2:16 a.m. | Surveillance video from a building on N. Lincoln records the Ligons stop, with the patrol car’s lights flashing. It begins about fifteen minutes after the car left the school. | Scott Adams 00125; Surety video, camera C21 |
| June 18, afternoon | Daniel is interviewed at headquarters and his uniform pants are bagged as evidence, some fifteen hours after the stop. | Scott Adams 04297 |
Lyles described intercourse alone lasting probably like 20 or 30 minutes,
in addition to the oral sex, the search, and the rest of what she said happened at the school. Trial Tr. 3627:19–23.
The same school, and the same kind of time problem, in Sherry Ellis’s case
By the State’s own theory, her DNA should have been on the fly.
The State told the jury that intercourse through the fly had left Adaira Gardner’s DNA there. Lyles described intercourse through the same fly, hours later and closer to the seizure. She said Daniel just unzipped his fly
and kept his gun belt on. Trial Tr. 3627:13–18, 4307:8–13.
The State described the act as sustained and physical. Lyles told Davis that something on his belt kept hitting her left buttock during intercourse; at trial she said it felt like his gun poking my hip.
Davis told the jury that detail was significant because the belt continually hitting would be consistent with him thrusting his penis in and out of her vagina.
On the State’s own account, the fly of those pants was pressed against her again and again for twenty or thirty minutes. Scott Adams 01536; Trial Tr. 3627:7–12, 3737:7–3738:15.
Davis had the laboratory compare Lyles to the unknown female profile. It was not a match. Asked what that meant for the investigation, Davis said: Still needed to keep looking.
The laboratory’s report excluded her from every profile it reported from the pants, and the analyst found nothing suspicious on the fly under a bright light and a magnifying glass. Trial Tr. 3717:1–11, 4084:2–7; Forensic Examination Report SD-14-273 (Nov. 12, 2014), at 9.
The result did not prompt a second look at the theory or at her account. It prompted a new search. Davis explained how Gardner was found: Once we found out that Kala Lyles was not a DNA match to the unidentified female we decided to look at every female he ran
before he was put on leave, working backwards. Trial Tr. 3892:15–24.
Why “he just unzipped his fly” is a problem: the compression shorts
Each telling was different.
| Interview, Sept. 16, 2014 | Preliminary hearing, Nov. 18, 2014 | Trial, Nov. 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How long the intercourse lasted | “approximately 5-10 minutes” | “Probably like 10 minutes, if that.” | “Probably like 20 or 30 minutes.” |
| His pants | He “pulled his pants half way down” | “He just unzipped them.” | “He didn’t pull his pants down.” |
| What came first | Oral sex, then intercourse | Oral sex, then intercourse | “I think he — he had me bend over first.” |
At trial, shown the detective’s report, she said she did not recall telling Davis that he pulled his pants down, and that it didn’t happen.
Scott Adams 01535 (interview report, Det. Davis, Sept. 17, 2014); Prelim. Tr. II 93–97 (Nov. 18, 2014); Trial Tr. 3626:23–25, 3627:19–23, 3652:4–3653:4.
Police were looking for her before she said anything.
Lyles was on the list of women Lt. Muzny pulled from Daniel’s records. An internal email from July 30, 2014, discussing her and Sherry Ellis, said investigators had nothing that says either of these women are victims.
On July 23, Davis and a second detective went to her parents’ house and left a card. OKC 1035; Scott Adams 01534; Trial Tr. 3676:13–22, 3717:20–25.
She did not call. In mid-September, after missing an August appointment, she told her probation officer she had been raped by the officer that’s been all over the news.
He called the sex-crimes unit, and Davis interviewed her that day, September 16. Scott Adams 01537; Trial Tr. 3643:25–3646:7.
She identified the officer as the one who had written her tickets about a year earlier. Daniel had never written her a ticket. Officer Allan Cruz had, in March 2013. Scott Adams 01571; Trial Tr. 3646:15–3647:19.
The jury found Daniel not guilty on all four counts involving Lyles: forcible oral sodomy, two counts of procuring lewd exhibition, and first-degree rape. Trial Tr. 4324–26.
Explore the rest of the case.
Daniel Holtzclaw: case summary
A summary of the whole case: the investigation, the DNA, the accusers, the trial, and where things stand.
The DNAHow the State Distorted the DNA Evidence
A trace of DNA, less than a car door handle leaves, and no stain. The prosecutor called it “fact” that it came from a rape.
The analystThe Analyst In Her Own Words
The State’s only forensic witness, on video: what she looked for, what she didn’t test, what she told the prosecutor, and what her opinions rested on.
The emailsEvidence Destruction
The analyst’s email account was deleted while the appeal was pending. What the State later recovered began after the trial was over.
The searchHow the State Manufactured Accusers
Nine of thirteen accusers were found by police, who opened with a “tip” that didn’t exist. Thirty-some other women said nothing happened.
Accuser evidenceWhat Police Never Checked
Missing recordings and what the objective records actually showed, once each woman had made her allegation.
Case studyTerri Morris
How Morris's allegation changed, how police selected May 8, and what the AVL records do and do not show.
The first accuserJannie Ligons
The June 18 allegation, the unrecorded first interview, and the negative forensic test results.
Case studySherry Ellis
How police found Ellis, the description that did not match Daniel, and her later testimony that she had never seen him before trial.
The fly“I Don’t Know How He Did It.”
Jannie Ligons said it at trial. Eight of the nine women who alleged rape or oral sodomy placed the act through the fly of pants that stayed on. Under the uniform, Daniel wore compression shorts with no fly. Getting past them would take work. Nobody has ever explained how he was able to extricate himself with so little time and effort.
Guilt by associationOne Accuser’s DNA Carried Twelve Others
The only physical evidence belonged to one accuser. All thirteen were tried together, and jurors later said the DNA got deliberations moving when they doubted some of the others.
The courtroomThe Circus-Like Trial
The protests, audible chanting, courthouse conditions, and the denied request to sequester the jury.
The manWho Daniel Was
A rookie his supervisors called eager and liked by all, whose phone and work computer held nothing incriminating, and who sat for two hours with the detectives accusing him and urged them to test his DNA.
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