Tulsa County Jail

Tulsa, Okla., police say William Lewallen was arrested for child abuse/neglect.

A Tulsa, Okla., man was arrested after his 16-month-old daughter was found locked in a metal dog cage and covered with feces and his naked 3-year old son was found crying outside on a cold afternoon, police said.

William Todd Lewallen, 47, was arrested for felony child abuse or neglect. He was found in a stupor in bed with a third child, a 3-year-old boy who was also naked, Tulsa police said. 

The three children were turned over to the custody of the state Department of Human Services.

Police made the disturbing find on Sunday afternoon when they responded to a neighbor’s call about a child crying outside, with the temperature in the low 40s.

“He was screaming, ‘Daddy, let me in! I’m cold!’” one neighbor, Matthew Testerman, told the Tulsa World.

Other neighbors took the boy in and warmed him up.

Arriving officers heard screaming and crying coming from inside the house. They looked through a small back window and saw a child inside a metal dog crate, Officer Leland Ashley with the Tulsa Police Department told local media.

Officers kicked open the back door. "Upon entry officers were immediately hit with the overwhelming stench of feces," Ashley was quoted as saying.

Police removed the 16-month-old girl from the kennel. She was wearing only a diaper and was covered in feces, police said.

Officers found the father passed out in a bed in the master bedroom, with another naked toddler asleep in the bed.

The father reportedly told police he took narcotic pain medicine, a muscle relaxant and an anti-seizure medication with a beer and then "laid down to take a rest."

"The defendant was unaware that a naked child had been locked out of his house and was outside in the 40 degree weather for over 20 minutes," the arrest report states, according to NewsOn6.com. "The screaming child in the dog kennel did not wake the defendant nor did the officers kicking the door down to rescue the toddler in the dog cage."

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The children showed no sign of physical injury, according to police.

Leland said the children’s mother was at work at the time and arrived home just as officers were preparing to leave.

Lewallen was being held in the Tulsa jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.               

Records show he has been charged in eight felony cases in four counties since 1989, according to the Tulsa World. He has been convicted in the past of joyriding and possession of a precursor to manufacture a controlled drug – methamphetamine, according to NewsOn6.com.

The investigation is continuing, Ashley told NBC News on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered multiple crashes involving about three dozen vehicles on Thursday, forcing police to shut down part of the heavily traveled Interstate 35 for several hours amid near blackout conditions.

More than a dozen people were injured as winds up to 55 mph whipped up the soil off farmlands near Blackwell, NBC station KFOR-TV reported. 

In a scene reminiscent of the Dust Bowl days, choking dust shrouded Interstate 35, which links Dallas and Oklahoma City to Kansas City, Mo.

Dozens of vehicles were stopped dead in their tracks in the median and on the shoulders. 

"I've never seen anything like this," said Jodi Palmer, a dispatcher with the Kay County Sheriff's Office. "In this area alone, the dirt is blowing because we've been in a drought. I think from the drought everything's so dry and the wind is high." 

The highway was closed between U.S. 60 and Oklahoma 11, an eight-mile stretch of the cross-country roadway.

"We have very high winds and blowing dust causing a near blackout condition," Capt. James West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Thursday afternoon. He said visibility was less than 10 feet.

The stretch of closed roadway reopened Thursday evening after crews cleaned up debris and waited for winds to die down.

The area has suffered through an extended drought and many farmers had recently loosened the soil while preparing for the winter wheat season.

"You have the perfect combination of extended drought in that area ... and we have the extremely strong winds," said Gary McManus, the Oklahoma associate state climatologist.

Rolf Clements / The Ponca City News via AP

These cars were among the nearly three dozen involved in dust storm crashes Thursday near Blackwell, Okla.

"Also, the timing is bad because a lot of those farm fields are bare. The soil is so dry, it's like powder. Basically what you have is a whole bunch of topsoil waiting for the wind to blow it away. It's no different from the 1930s than it is now."

Steve Austin, a Kay County commissioner, said visibility was terrible even in the nearby town of Ponca City.

"It looked like a huge fog," he said. "We've had dust storms before, but I don't remember anything of this magnitude in years." 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rolf Clements / The Ponca City News via AP

Rescuers work to remove a woman pinned in a vehicle involved in the Interstate 35 crashes Thursday near Blackwell, Okla.

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Severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes are threatening a swath of the central United States from Iowa to parts of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, forecasters warned.

Chris Dolce and Jon Erdman, of weather.com, said the Midwest would be likely hit by storms and showers Saturday morning, but the “greatest concern for severe storms will be from the afternoon through evening.”

“While the primary severe threats look to be damaging straight-line winds and large hail, the degree of low-level wind shear and instability may spawn isolated tornadoes in these areas,” they added.

Weather.com said the storm system would continue moving eastward on Sunday.

“Scattered severe storms may flare again along the cold front with spotty damaging wind gusts and possibly a tornado from the southern Great Lakes southwestward to the Ohio Valley, lower-Mississippi Valley and southeastern Texas,” Dolce and Erdman added.

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A 23-year-old Illinois man has been arrested after the discovery of bomb-making materials and notes about destroying 48 churches in Oklahoma, NewsOK.com reported, citing an arrest affidavit. But family members say Gregory Arthur Weiler II suffers from mental illness.

The NewsOK.com report said Weiler, 23, was arrested in Miami, Okla., and charged Friday with possession of an explosive or incendiary devise and violation of the Oklahoma anti-terrorism act, put in place after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. He was being held without bail.

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NewsOK.com reported that Miami Police Chief George Haralson said the targets were churches in Ottawa County in the far northeast corner of Oklahoma. Miami is the county seat.

According to the affidavit, police found detailed maps and torn-up notes with a recipe for Molotov cocktails and a list of 48 churches, along with details about "how many nights the congregations meet and how many people attend," NewsOK.com reported. Police also found a duffel bag containing 50 brown glass bottles, a  funnel and lighter fluid in a motel trash bin.

Weiler reportedly was arrested after the discovery of the bomb-making materials in the trash bin.

According to the Chicago Tribune, family members said Weiler had been hospitalized with mental illness several times and had suffered with addictions to heroin and alcohol. They said his mother and father committed suicide before he was 16.

Family members said Weiler had joined a religious group in Missouri about three years ago.

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A 60-year-old woman was killed Wednesday by a pit bull terrier owned by her family in Oklahoma City, police said.

Officers with the Oklahoma City Police Department said Nellie Davis’ granddaughter found her body in her home at about 11:30 p.m. The granddaughter had returned to the apartment and discovered that her grandmother had been attacked by one of the family’s two large pit bulls, according to police.

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When police arrived, they attempted to force the pit bull into a crate, but, police said, they were forced to shoot due to the crate’s broken lock.

Homicide detectives are investigating Davis’ death, and patrol supervisors are investigating the shooting of the dog.

Earlier this week, police in Burleson, Texas, said a 3-month-old baby boy died after being mauled by the family’s pit bull. The infant apparently was attacked while lying asleep on a bed; he was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The dog was euthanized by Burleson Animal Control. 

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FBI via AP

Surveillance photos provided by the FBI's St. Louis office show a serial bank robber dubbed the Bucket List Bandit on, from left, June 21, June 27 and July 6. Michael Eugene Brewster, 54, was arrested Thursday night after a traffic stop in Roland, Okla., the FBI said.

A suspect in a series of bank robberies that earned the perpetrator the nickname "Bucket List Bandit" is under arrest after a routine traffic stop by Roland, Okla., police, the FBI announced Friday.

Michael Eugene Brewster, 54, of Pensacola, Fla., was arrested Thursday, police said. Brewster is wanted in at least 10 bank robberies from Flagstaff, Ariz., to Erie, Pa., where a teller picked out his photo from a lineup after a Monday heist, the FBI said.

The suspect earned the nickname "Bucket List Bandit" after he allegedly passed a Roy, Utah, bankteller a note on July 6 saying he had only four months to live, the FBI said.

Roland Assistant Police Chief David Goode told NBC News he arrested Brewster after he ran a stop sign Thursday night in the town of about 3,000 just west of Fort Smith, Ark.

“Subsequent to the stop, red flags were raised,” Goode said.

He said he could not go into too many specifics.

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“I placed him under arrest unrelated to the bank robbery,” Goode said.

Brewster was driving a car reported stolen from Pensacola, Goode said. “That was just another charge,” he said.

After Brewster was taken into custody, police learned Brewster “could have been possibly involved in more serious crimes,” Goode said.

The FBI told The Associated Press that besides Flagstaff, Roy and Erie, Brewster was wanted in connection with robberies in Pocatello, Idaho; Winston-Salem, N.C.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Bloomington, Ill.; Columbia and O'Fallon, Mo., and Arvada, Colo., the Denver suburb where his alleged crime spree began.

The agency had issued a nationwide appeal for the public’s help in finding the serial bank robbery suspect.

After the Erie robbery, a confidential informant called to give agents Brewster's name and birth date after recognizing his picture in media accounts, the FBI told the AP. A federal warrant doesn't say how the person knew that information.

Investigators haven't said whether they've confirmed if Brewster is terminally ill.

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The federal warrant doesn't identify Brewster’s hometown, but indicates he's wanted for borrowing a black Chevy Captiva from a woman in Pensacola on June 11 and not returning it. The vehicle was similar to one described by witnesses at several of the robberies.

No one has been hurt in any of the robberies and officials aren't saying how much money was taken, except for $4,080 from the Erie bank, which was disclosed in the FBI arrest warrant.

This article includes reporting by NBC's Jim Gold and The Associated Press.

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Jeff Roberson / AP

Storm clouds roll in over Busch Stadium as the St. Louis Cardinals prepare to take on the Milwaukee Brewers in a baseball game on Friday night.

Powerful storms rumbled across parts of the Midwest and the southern Plains late Friday evening, leaving a total of four people dead.

The storms left damaged homes, downed trees and thousands of power outages in their wake as they swept across Oklahoma, weather.com reported.

Two adults and an infant were found dead inside their destroyed mobile home after it was blown into a ravine in Nowata County, according to Doug Sonenburg, undersheriff of Nowata County.

The storms sent high winds through much of northeastern Oklahoma late Friday, causing road closures and evacuations in some areas.

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Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported 17,790 customers without power, and at least 2,885 Oklahoma Gas and Electric customers were without electricity.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol also reported that Ash Grove, Mo., resident Jimmy King was killed when straight-line winds flipped the semi he was driving onto a cement barrier wall and trapped him inside near Afton, according to The Associated Press.

Troopers said the 70-year-old King was pinned in the wreckage for nearly three hours and died at the scene of massive injuries.

Utility crews were also scrambling to address scattered power outages in southern, central and eastern Missouri after powerful thunderstorms swept across the state.

Several high schools postponed their Friday night football games to avoid taking chances.

The storms brought large hail to the Ozarks and the Columbia and Jefferson City areas, along with winds up to 70 mph that snapped power poles and trees in several communities.

Emergency managers received scattered reports of roofs torn from barns and streets blocked by fallen trees and power lines. The National Weather Service posted a few tornado warnings, but no funnel clouds were reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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An Oklahoma high school valedictorian who was denied her diploma because she used the world “hell” in her commencement speech doesn’t plan to apologize for her choice of words, her father says.

David Nootbaar said he is furious that Prague High School is withholding his daughter Kaitlin's diploma because of her use of the word during the graduation speech in May. “She has worked so hard to stay at the top of her class and this is not right,” he said. “She earned that diploma. In four years she has never made a B. She got straight A’s and had a 4.0 the whole way through."

School officials declined to comment. "This matter is confidential and we cannot publicly say anything about it," Prague schools Superintendent Rick Martin said in a statement to KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City.

David Nootbaar said his daughter was inspired by the movie “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" when she wrote the speech. “Her quote was, ‘When she first started school she wanted to be a nurse, then a veterinarian and now that she was getting closer to graduation, people would ask her, what do you want to do and she said ‘How the hell do I know? I’ve changed my mind so many times,’” he said.

He said in the written script she gave to the school she wrote “heck,” but in the moment she said “hell” instead. 

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During the ceremony, Nootbaar said the audience laughed and she finished her speech to warm applause. She didn’t know there was a problem, he said.

But trouble surfaced when she went to school to pick up her graduation certificate last week, her father said.

“We went to the office and asked for the diploma and the principal said ‘Your diploma is right here but you’re not getting it. Close the door we have a problem,'" Nootbaar said.

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He said the principal told Kaitlin she would have to write an apology letter before he would release the diploma.

Kaitlin doesn’t plan on writing an apology letter because she doesn’t feel she did anything wrong, her father said. He said her family stands behind her decision.

Kaitlin starts classes at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in a few days on a full scholarship. 

KFOR-TV's La'Tasha Givens contributed to this report.

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Okla. Department Of Corrections / AP

Michael Hooper, shown in a photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, was executed on Tuesday.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her two young children in 1993 and burying them in a shallow grave was executed Tuesday in Oklahoma after an unsuccessful last-ditch challenge to the state's three-drug execution protocol.

Michael Hooper, 39, was convicted of driving his ex-girlfriend Cynthia Jarman and her children, Timothy, 3, and Tonya, 5, to a field where he shot each of them twice in the head and then buried them in December 1993.

Their bodies were found three days later. Police reports showed that Hooper and Jarman previously had been in a "physically violent relationship," the state attorney general's office said.

Hooper, who was the fourth person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 27th in the United States, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. local time (9:14 p.m. ET) at the state prison in McAlester, a prison spokesman said.

Death sentence re-imposed in 2004
Hooper was first sentenced to death in 1995, but a federal appeals court overturned the sentence seven years later, ruling that his counsel had been ineffective. He waived his right to be sentenced by a jury at a new hearing. A judge re-imposed the death sentence in 2004.

More on this story from NBC News' Tulsa affiliate KJRH

Hooper had waived his right to appear before the state pardons and parole board, but last week attempted to block his execution by challenging the three-drug protocol used to execute condemned killers in Oklahoma.

He had contended that the protocol used had the potential to cause great pain and was unconstitutional. A federal judge in Oklahoma City and a federal appeals court rejected his challenge.

Earlier this year, Oklahoma was down to one dose of pentobarbital, one of three drugs the state uses to execute condemned inmates. It obtained 20 more doses since then, state prison spokesman Jerry Massie said.

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'Long, arduous journey for all of the families'
The family members of Hooper's three victims released a statement that extended their condolences to Hooper's family.

"This has been a long, arduous journey for all of the families," the statement said. "Tonya, Timmy and Cindy will always be in our hearts and our minds. They will forever be missed and loved deeply."

Hooper requested a variety of fruit along with cranberry juice and coffee for his last meal, Massie said.

"I just want to thank God for such an excellent sendoff," Hooper said before the execution. "Also, my family, for standing by me throughout all this. I appreciate their being there for me through the hardships."

Hooper also asked for forgiveness "for all those that need it -- you know who you are."

"I ask that my spirit be released directly into the hands of Jesus and I'm ready to go. I love you all," he said. 

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Updated at 8:34 p.m. ET: Oklahoma firefighters on Monday battled flare-ups and hot spots across the state as medical officials tried to identify a body burned beyond recognition in a rural Norman home.

The Oklahoma medical examiner's office requested dental records to identify the body found Saturday, said spokesperson Amy Elliott.

The area south of Oklahoma City had been evacuated after a wildfire erupted Friday, and some residents weren't allowed to return until Sunday.

About 7,900 acres burned and about 100 structures were lost in the Cleveland County fire including the Noble, Norman and Slaughterville areas, NBC station KFOR of Oklahoma City reported.

One fire chief reported the wildfires were so violent in the area that structures were “pretty much incinerated,” KFOR reported.

Jim Beckel / AP file

Victoria Landavazo holds her 1-year-old child, Axel, after arriving with other members of her family on Saturday to see for the first time what a wildfire had done to their home in Luther, Okla.

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Crews had battled 18 wildfires that hopscotched across Oklahoma since Friday, torching at least 121 structures and charring almost 94,000 acres amid a drought.

Fires left only ashes in some spots, while property just feet away looked remarkably untouched. In some cases, the flames shifted with the wind, while in others, streams or ponds forced a detour.

Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said all the fires were either under control or in "mop-up" stages early Monday afternoon. Mop-ups could go on for days, Cain said.

Tom Gilbert / AP file

Smoke covers Highway 48 on Saturday, east of Drumright, Okla.

Twelve fires, including "a couple of new ones," continued, Cain said.

"High heat, low humidity and very strong winds make it difficult for crews and easy for fires to spread," Cain said.

One, which threatened the small town of Luther over the weekend, is being investigated as a possible arson. Witnesses told Oklahoma County sheriff's deputies they saw a man throwing a lighted newspaper from a black Ford pickup, but no arrests have been made.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Updated at 12:20 a.m ET: At least 121 structures, many of them homes, have been destroyed by wildfires in Oklahoma, officials said Saturday as temperatures topped 100 degrees for a 19th straight day.

New evacuations were under way Saturday as well: Authorities ordered evacuations in the towns of Glencoe, population of around 600, and Mannford, population about 3,000 in Creek County about 20 miles west of Tulsa.

Thousands were on the move as the fire in Creek County spread quickly, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported. 

A Glencoe official said 15 to 20 homes had burned in that area on Saturday, KOCO of Oklahoma City reported.

A grass fire near Luther consumed 56 structures and hot spots there and at two other large fires kept crews busy Saturday. It has burned 2,600 acres by Saturday evening.

Gov. Mary Fallin toured the Luther area on Saturday, calling the devastation "heartbreaking." 

"A lot of people were at work and didn't realize how quickly the fire was moving," Fallin told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It's emotional. For the children, it's very emotional to lose their possessions."

Authorities suspect that fire might be arson: The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department said it received a 911 call from a man who reported seeing another man toss a lighted newspaper from a pickup truck window on Friday afternoon. 

Residents returning to their homes Saturday found charred timbers poking from the debris and the burned out shells of refrigerators, washers and dryers.

"It's all gone. All of our family pictures, everything was there," said Victoria Landavazo, clutching a young child in her arms. 

Tracy Streeper was working in Oklahoma City, about 40 miles southwest, when she learned the fire was approaching. Caught in traffic, it took her a long time to reach home and then, "once we got here, we had maybe 30 minutes."

She grabbed a few clothes, medicine and her three dogs and left quickly.

Reuters

Remains of a home burnned to the ground are seen in Luther, Okla., on Saturday.

"Your adrenaline is running. You're pumped up," Streeper said. "You could just see a wall of flames coming this way. Everything was on fire."

Casey Strahan said he went outside after power went out in the home he rents about 4:30 p.m. He looked south and saw smoke rising in the distance. He thought it was moving away from him until police ordered him to leave. He rushed through the house, grabbing clothing, photos and a computer as he went. When he returned Saturday, he found the house burned to the ground.

"I just never thought it was really going to get us," said Strahan, a softball and girls basketball coach at Luther High School.

Fires near Mannford and Noble claimed another 65 structures.

Two new fires broke out on Saturday, and Oklahoma now is fighting 13 across the state, said Forestry Services spokeswoman Michelle  Finch-Walker.

A state-wide burn ban was issued by Fallin on Friday.

Oklahoma has contacted neighboring states for help but, with the exception of Texas, neighbors have had to focus on their own fire threats, Fallin said on Friday. 

"There's fires in Arkansas. There's fires in Kansas and Texas. Everybody else is on high heat alert," she said. 

Sarah Phipps / AP

A home burns during a large wildfire Friday, Aug. 3, 2012 in Luther, Okla.

Oklahoma joins several states that have been plagued by wildfires this summer, including Colorado, Arkansas and Nebraska. Fires are being fed by a widespread drought. Nearly two-thirds of the contiguous United States was under some level of drought as of July 31. 

Low humidity, strong southerly winds and drought conditions enabled the wildfires to spread quickly across treetops, said Michelann Ooten, deputy director of the state's Office of Emergency Management.

"It's just a very difficult situation we're facing that's all weather related," Ooten said. 

The heat in Oklahoma City, the state capital, has reached historic levels. 

On Friday, Oklahoma City tied its all-time record for the highest temperature ever recorded when the thermometer reached 113 Fahrenheit, a mark last recorded in the Dust Bowl days in 1936. 

It's so hot that some volunteer fire departments have made a public plea for Gatorade donations to keep their crews hydrated in the scalding conditions. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Tinder-dry and wicked-hot Oklahoma battled at least six grass fires on Friday, including several just outside Oklahoma City -- where the temperature reached 111 degrees Fahrenheit.

Two fires were burning in Cleveland County, part of Greater Oklahoma City, and residents in largely rural areas were ordered to evacuate.

Initial reports indicated that the largest fire, near Noble, burned as many as 25 homes and other structures, said Jerry Lojka, spokesman for the state emergency management agency.

He said there have been no reports of death or injury.

"We've been very fortunate," he said. 

Gov. Mary Fallin issued a statewide burn ban for all counties, News9.com reported.

Temperatures across the state have been well above 100 degrees this week, with many areas around 110 or even hotter. 

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