Jarron Pridgeon Trial Delayed For Months Because Of Missing Transcripts

One of the biggest murder cases to ever happen in Muskogee County was delayed for several months because of missing transcripts. Jarron Pridgeon is charged with killing five children and his own brother.

Without those missing transcripts, a preliminary hearing done last fall with statements from victims and multiple others would have to be completely re-done -- setting the case back months. District Attorney Larry Edwards said the court reporter who took notes during the preliminary hearing last fall never turned in the transcript.

“I’ve been an attorney for 30 years, prosecutor for 16, 17 years, I’ve never seen anything like this," he said. Edwards said transcripts normally take weeks to complete and taking nearly a year is unheard of.

However, the court reporter's daughter called Judge Timothy King with answers. “She alleged that he was on hospice care and that he was having issues being able to function to adequately produce a transcript," King said.

She also brought in a partially completed transcript and recordings of the previous hearing. “She’s trying very hard to make things right," Edwards said. “What we’re going to do is have the transcript that we have in hand, check it to the audio files to make sure for accuracy.”

On such a high-profile case, accurate transcripts are crucial. Judge King's plan to have additional court reporters use the audio recordings to help complete the transcript was accepted by the prosecution and Pridgeon's attorney, Gretchen Mosley.

"In terms of your honor’s proposed remedy for the issue I don’t see any problem with that at this time,” she said at the hearing.

“One of my greatest fears is we were going to have to do this preliminary hearing again," Edwards said. "And to put that victim through that, the mother of these children, would be very traumatic.”

King said the transcripts should be fixed in two weeks.