Guilty: Father and Son Convicted of Murder of Bank Security Guard

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Tulsa County jurors took about 40 minutes to convict a father and son of murdering a bank security guard during an attempted robbery.

Wade Lay, 44, and his son, Christopher Lay, 20, also were each found guilty Monday of a separate count of attempted armed robbery.

The sentencing phase of the trial was expected to resume Tuesday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Other punishment options for the murder are life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

The bank guard, Kenneth Anderson, 36, was killed May 24, 2004, during a foiled robbery attempt of the MidFirst Bank in Tulsa.

Wade and Christopher Lay have testified that they went to the bank intending to rob it but with no intention to kill anyone.

Chris Lay carried a sawed-off shotgun, and Wade Lay had a .40-caliber pistol. They both were wounded in a gunfight with Anderson, who fired a .45-caliber handgun. Anderson was killed by shotgun pellet wounds and a gunshot wound, evidence indicates.

Wade Lay, who is not an attorney but who is handling his own legal defense, testified Monday that the bank money was sought "to buy adequate weapons."

First Assistant District Attorney Doug Drummond said the father and son were "operating outside of reality" and had a "self-proclaimed mission to revenge Waco."

From the witness stand, Christopher Lay acknowledged Friday that he had compiled a list of people who he thought were responsible for the deaths of about 80 Branch Davidians, who died in 1993 in a fiery end to a 51-day standoff with law enforcement agents and federal officials in Waco, Texas.

That "hit list" had 15 names designated as the "enemy," Drummond said.

Wade Lay said that "we planned on holding the people who murdered those people accountable," because the government had not.

"Those men that killed these people at Waco didn't have to," he testified Monday.

Under cross-examination, he said, "I think they should die."

Wade Lay said it was "100 percent accurate" to say that he is willing to kill for his beliefs, but he said he hadn't wanted anyone to get hurt at the bank.

"I wanted to spark a revolution. That is the truth," he testified. "I've stood in the face of tyranny. I will continue to do so."

Attorney Kevin Adams, representing Chris Lay, told jurors that the son shot Anderson in order to protect his father.

After the sentencing stage started Monday, jurors heard emotional impact statements from two sisters of Anderson's.

"I am very proud of Kenny for doing his job and protecting all the people in the bank," Kim Tryon said.

"I know that he would have done it all over again if he had lived," she said. "That was the type of person he was."

(c) 2005 Associated Press