Aggravated assault and battery charges against three defendants have been dismissed.
Michael Adam Norris, Joseph Daniel Dearmond and Jordan Sean Thomason, all Lincoln County Jail inmates at the time, were charged in Lincoln County District Court on Jan. 23, this year, with felonies. They were accused of assaulting and injuring another inmate at the time, Channing Deshazo.
At the start of their scheduled preliminary hearing on March 28, the state announced the cases were being dropped and Special Judge Emily Mueller ordered they be dismissed without costs.
Norris was recently convicted by a Lincoln County jury and then sentenced to 30 years in prison.
It took a jury only 45 minutes in February to convict Norris, of Edmond, on drug trafficking charges, then took less than 40 minutes to recommend his punishment.
Norris, 40, was charged in Lincoln County District Court on May 8, 2023 with trafficking in illegal drugs, a felony, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.
The jury, after finding Norris guilty on both charges, then deliberated and returned to open court and recommended that Norris serve 30 years in prison on Count 1, the trafficking charge and one year in the Lincoln County Jail on Count 2.
Norris waived a pre-sentence investigation and requested sentencing at that time.
Associate District Judge Sheila Kirk, who presided over the jury trial, then found Norris guilty and followed the recommendation of the jury, that Norris serve 30 years in the Department of Corrections on Count 1 and one year in the Lincoln County Jail on Count 2 with the sentences to run consecutively.