Transcript Staff Writer

A 23-year-old Shawnee man, Aaron Rains Prado, was formally sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole, for first-degree murder in the June 4, 2006, shooting death of Andrew "Drew" Supernaw, 27, of Anadarko.

The shooting occurred at an outside party in northwest Norman, attended by several hundred Native Americans. According to trial testimony, Prado shot Supernaw with an AK-47 assault rifle.

Prado was sentenced by Cleveland County District Judge Bill Hetherington, who presided at Prado's jury trial in February. In Oklahoma a life sentence is calculated as 45 years, so Prado will be required to serve 85 percent of the sentence, or 38 years and three months, before being eligible for parole consideration.

No aggravating or mitigating testimony was presented. Assistant District Attorney Rick Sitzman asked Hetherington to impose a sentence of life without parole -- the sentence recommended by the jury. Gregg Webb, Prado's attorney, asked the judge to suspend part of the sentence. Prado showed no emotion when sentenced.

Following the week-long trial, a jury deliberated less than three hours Feb. 11 in deciding Prado was guilty of first-degree murder.

Sitzman, in closing arguments, said Prado shot Supernaw "with predetermination and malice aforethought."

Prado made the decision to "inject a high-power assault rifle into what was at most a shoving match," Sitzman said.

Trial testimony included that of Myron Dale Tartsah, who said he was the designated driver for the Anadarko group that arrived at the party around 3:30 a.m. Tartsah, who was driving a black Ford Expedition, said the group saw Supernaw and other friends from Anadarko, and parked behind Supernaw's rental vehicle.

Meanwhile, Prado, his brother Ryan and a friend, Brian Wilson Ponkilla, drove from Shawnee to Oklahoma City and to Norman in Prado's Honda Accord. The Accord was parked about 200 feet from the Anadarko group's vehicles. Around 6 a.m., Prado and Ponkilla were involved in a conversation with the Anadarko group that lasted several minutes. Prado and Ponkilla went and retrieved the guns from the trunk of the Honda and returned a short time later, Prado carrying the assault rifle and Ponkilla a .40 caliber pistol, Tartsah said.

Ponkilla, Prado's co-defendant, pleaded guilty last September to striking Tartsah, sitting in the driver's seat of the SUV, in the side of the head with a .40 caliber pistol after firing the gun in the air several times. Ponkilla was sentenced to four years in prison on assault and conspiracy charges.

Other witnesses testified Prado ran around the other side of the SUV, jabbed Supernaw in the side with the AK-47, then shot him several times.

The fatal shot entered Supernaw's left shoulder, traveled through his chest and lodged in his right arm, according to the medical examiner. Another round went straight through his lower left abdominal area and exited his back. A third wound -- a grazing wound in the small of Supernaw's back -- might have been caused by a third round of the AK-47, the medical examiner said.

Prado took the stand in his own defense and admitted shooting Supernaw several times after seeing a fight break out between Prado's brother and a friend and two people in the Anadarko group.

After the shooting, Tartsah, his uncle and a cousin picked up Supernaw and placed him in the back seat of the SUV. The men traveled a short distance north on 12th Avenue when their vehicle broke down. Ambulances took Tartsah and Supernaw to Norman Regional Hospital, where Supernaw died about 13 hours later.