Le Mars Daily Sentinel: Local News: O'Keefe pleads guilty to stabbing (09/05/08)

Jody Brent O'Keefe

The man charged with stabbing another man with a butcher knife in a Le Mars downtown apartment in January pleaded guilty to four felony charges Thursday.

Jody Brent O'Keefe, 35, signed a plea agreement that could land him in prison for up to 40 years for the death of Samuel Ray Toliver, 32.

If he had gone through with his trial, slated for next Tuesday, O'Keefe faced the possibility of life in prison.

The agreement replaced O'Keefe's two higher felony charges, first degree murder and attempted murder, with four lower felonies.

First degree murder, a class A felony, is punishable with life in prison without parole, and attempted murder, a class B felony, is punishable with up to 25 years in prison.

The lesser charges O'Keefe pleaded guilty to are voluntary manslaughter, willful injury (two counts) and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. All four are class C felonies.

Along with prison time, O'Keefe faces a $4,000 minimum fine.

O'Keefe's sentencing will be at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 9 in Plymouth County District Court.

Before signing the plea agreement, O'Keefe faced the first-degree murder charge for allegedly stabbing Toliver in the chest with a butcher knife on Jan. 24, 2008.

Originally, O'Keefe faced second-degree murder and attempted murder charges, but the county attorney filed the increased charge after reviewing other case law. First-degree murder is defined as "willful" and "premeditated."

The stabbing allegedly followed a fight at an upstairs apartment at 21 First Ave. NE, according to the Le Mars Police. Both O'Keefe and Toliver resided at that address, but O'Keefe resided in Apartment B and Toliver lived in Apartment A.

O'Keefe and Toliver were working on separate crews at the ethanol plant construction site north of Merrill, the police said.

O'Keefe is being held at the Plymouth County Jail, and bond is $1 million.

maybe the courts should just give him 3 years of parole and pay restitution. Am sure that he learned his lesson and will not do it again.

It is just a Felony....o'wait, he is not a big business owner. give him Death!!!!!

-- Posted by singer1269 on Sat, Sep 6, 2008, at 6:46 AM

Makes no sense to me.

Charged with 2nd degree murder--

after the County Attorney reviews it the charges go to 1st degree murder--

then he drops it to voluntary manslaughter--

"WHY"

-- Posted by common man on Sun, Sep 7, 2008, at 9:58 AM

Im sure the charges were dropped because there was no case. Not saying anyone deserves to die but Im sure there was events that lead to this and the man accused is actually a nice guy.

-- Posted by myfriend on Mon, Sep 8, 2008, at 6:07 PM

Maybe he'll get what he deserves in prison, because the legal system let him off way to easy

-- Posted by hawkman on Mon, Sep 8, 2008, at 7:41 PM

nice guys do bad things. read the facts!!! he done it, admitted it, end of story.

-- Posted by kevnflo on Thu, Sep 11, 2008, at 2:08 PM

Gee Kevin wouldn't you consder yourself to be a nice guy?? And you've never done anything to be ashamed of? You've never done anything unchristian?? Think about that.

-- Posted by silent observer on Wed, Sep 17, 2008, at 11:35 AM

silent observer...are you ignorant, or what??? Have you ever lost a child???? evidently not, or you could half way know how we feel.

-- Posted by kevnflo on Thu, Sep 25, 2008, at 10:56 PM