Fate of Kevin Ray Underwood to be decided in Cleveland County court

By Julianna Parker

Transcript Staff Writer

PURCELL -- A Purcell man accused of killing a 10-year-old girl will be put on trial in Norman instead of Purcell, the judge ruled Thursday.

Kevin Ray Underwood, 28, will be tried in Cleveland County instead of McClain County, Judge Candace Blalock decided.

Underwood is accused of first-degree murder in the slaying of Jamie Rose Bolin, a girl who lived in his apartment complex.

Her body was found in a box in Underwood's closet.

The judge filed a gag order after gruesome details of the case were leaked to the press.

Defense lawyer Silas R. Lyman II filed a motion for a change of venue Jan. 12, arguing that an impartial jury could not be obtained in McClain County.

Moving the trial -- even if only to the next county -- would provide a new jury pool.

"A different county of that size, you just have more people to pick from," District Attorney Greg Mashburn said after the hearing.

To support his motion for change of venue, Lyman submitted a survey of McClain County residents that showed most already assumed Underwood's guilt.

In response, the district attorney's office filed the affidavits of 12 of the people surveyed.

"We have provided the court with counter-affidavits, basically," Mashburn said at Thursday's hearing.

The DA's office asked the respondents if they could set aside what they had heard about the case and make a fair judgment based on what they learned in court.