Pre-preliminary hearing to resume for murder suspects

Two suspects charged with the 2012 slaying of a Bartlesville man are due back in court Friday for a continuation of proceedings that could lead to the setting of a date for their preliminary hearing on murder and robbery charges.

Rusty Boyd Petty, 41, and Trysta Alberta Eileen Shaffer, 29, are scheduled for a 9 a.m. appearance in Osage County District Court. The local man and woman are charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon linked to the death of 62-year-old Timothy Hauser.

Osage County Special Judge Stuart Tate continued the pre-preliminary hearing last Friday due to the unavailability of attorneys with the capital-defense division of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, which is representing the two defendants.

Petty and Shaffer have been held since August on bonds of $1 million each. They were arrested less than a week after Hauser disappeared following a visit to a Bartlesville-area casino.

The pair originally was charged with conjoint robbery — based on admissions allegedly made following their arrests by Osage County authorities. Murder charges were added after Hauser’s body was found last December in a rural area three miles west of Bartlesville.

Earlier this week, it was erroneously reported that Judge Tate had scheduled the preliminary hearing for Shaffer and Petty on Friday. Also in error was a claim that attorneys from the OIDS capital division would not be available to defend the two suspects.