Federal courts have found a man’s videotaped confession in the 1984 death of an Ada convenience store clerk to be almost entirely false but the state of Oklahoma is still fighting in court over whether it can be used against him in a new trial.
The confession is one of the few remaining pieces of evidence the state has against Karl Fontenot in the abduction and killing of Donna Denise Haraway. Fontenot, 60, and Tommy Ward, 64, were twice-convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Haraway, who went missing from McAnally’s convenience store in Ada on April 28, 1984. The two men were arrested for the crime months later after both allegedly confessed to investigators that they had kidnapped, raped and murdered Haraway. The case was the subject of two books and a popular 2018 Netflix documentary The Innocent Man.
In their Dec. 20, 2024 briefing to the state appeals court, Fontenot’s attorneys pointed out that more than two and a half years have passed since the state’s attempt to have the federal appeals court’s decision overturned was denied, opening the door to refiling charges against Fontenot.
“Now, 926 days later, the State has not retried Mr. Fontenot, or set a trial date for Mr. Fontenot, or uncovered any new evidence that implicates Mr. Fontenot in the abduction of Denise Haraway,” the brief states. “In fact, the State of Oklahoma has stipulated to the absence of any new evidence on February 23, 2024, and admitted that the loss of evidence admitted at the previous trial, and the unavailability of many witnesses has compromised both side’s ability to move forward with the case.”
The state argues in court filings that it was never given a chance to present all of the evidence corroborating Fontenot’s confession in court and that a ruling on whether to suppress the confession should have been made at trial. Suppressing the confession also takes away one of the state’s central pieces of evidence against Fontenot, according to the state’s filing, making it much more difficult to prosecute the case.
Meanwhile, Ward remains in prison and is seeking to get his conviction overturned in federal court.
Mark Barrett, one of Ward’s attorneys, said his case is currently waiting for a ruling in federal court. Ward’s attorneys have argued that the evidence shows Ward is innocent and that his constitutional rights were violated by the state’s actions.
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It’s not clear when a ruling might come. The last filing in the case was in October last year.
“This isn’t an ordinary case, so we don’t expect it in the normal time,” Barrett said.
“It would be nice to find out who really did commit this homicide,” Barrett said. “That person is still out there.”
Barrett said Ward’s team is still looking for any new information about the case or Haraway’s murder.
“We’re considering all angles.”
Ward and Fontenot were jointly tried in Pontotoc County in September 1985, found guilty and sentenced to death for Haraway’s murder, though her remains would not be found until January 1986 in rural Hughes County.
Both men recanted their confessions shortly after giving them. claiming that police had fed them details to include in their statements.
The discovery of Haraway’s remains shortly after their first trial did little to shed light on the truthfulness of the two men’s confessions. Even before her skeletal remains were discovered, authorities had found several inconsistencies in what they said happened — one man who Fontenot and Ward said was with them and helped with the kidnapping and murder was completely exonerated by investigators and never charged, as was a second man accused of taking part in the crime.. Haraway’s remains were also discovered miles from where the men said she was murdered and her body disposed of and there was no evidence her body had been burned as they said it had.
However, the confessions were admitted as evidence in their retrials, and prosecutors hammered home one detail in the confessions they said anchored the men to the murder — a white blouse with blue floral print that Haraway’s family had discovered was missing from her closet and that she was believed to be wearing when she went missing. Investigators said they were not made aware of this detail until after Fontenot confessed in October 1984 and confirmed it with the family afterward.
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