Shannon Wayne Agofsky, 40, convicted of killing bank president Dan Short during the Oct. 6, 1989, robbery of the Bank of Noel, has filed for a post-conviction release in Delaware County, Okla., according to a report from Prosecuting Attorney Eddie Wyant issued about three months ago.
The case has been, and still is, sealed under order of District Judge Robert Haney.
According to Wyant, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s o◊ce ishandling the appeal for the state.
It was recently learned that the prosecution has turned in all of its paperwork to Judge Haney and the defense is expected to do so soon. Once both sides have responded, the judge is expected to make a ruling.
Bound and Gagged
Agofsky, a Noel resident at the time, was convicted of throwing the bound and gagged Short, taped to an old wooden kitchen chair and still alive, into the water from a bridge on Highway 10 over the Elk River arm of Grand Lakein Grove. The banker drowned. Short’s body was discovered by fishermen on Oct. 11, 1989.
According to testimony, officials believed Shannon Agofsky had help from at least one other person.
His brother, Joseph, was also charged with murder, but his portion of the proceedings ended in a mistrial because jurors could not reach a verdict. Joseph Agofsky, however, was convicted in 1992 along with Shannon on federal charges of using a weapon in a bank robbery. Each received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for that conviction.
Shannon Agofsky was sentenced to life without parole in a federal prison system for the murder of Short following a 1997 conviction by a Payne County, Okla., jury. That same jury became deadlocked on which sentence (death or life without parole) to levy against Agofsky, so the judge handed him the life sentence.
While in a Beaumont, Texas, federal lockup, he was convicted of stomping the head of a fellow inmate. The man died of his wounds. Agofsky was tried and sentenced to death in that incident.
He awaits execution in a prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
Expecting Some Action
Shannon Agofsky is apparently expecting some action in his case. He hasa presence on the Prisoner Assistant website, which advertises it helps prisoners with rehabilitation and reentry planning. As part of his listed profile, Shannon Agofsky says his prospects became bleak, but “then an extremely dedicated team of lawyers and investigators took my case. Their beliefin my innocence, coupled with much hard work, has turned up not only evidence to prove I was not involved in the bank robbery/murder, but positive proof of who the real criminals are.”
He goes on to state his belief that his case will be overturned in three to five years.
News, Pages 1 on 11/29/2012