Colter Jake Vaught, 42, was shot to death on January 11, 2024, on a roadway near an oilfield business in the 900 block of South Merritt Road, just west of Elk City. A volunteer firefighter from Sayre, Oklahoma, Vaught was pronounced dead at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Thirty-seven-year-old Clayton Samson Hays of Carter called 911 saying he had shot a man who was attempting to break into his semi-truck. Hays told investigators Vaught tried to enter his truck at a stop sign and began hitting him, and that he fired his 9mm handgun in self-defense. Officers noted no visible injuries on Hays consistent with a physical altercation. Police said the two men had argued weeks earlier; Hays was booked on a complaint of first-degree manslaughter.

After posting a $500,000 bond in late March, Hays was arrested in May for allegedly desecrating a roadside memorial for Vaught. Witnesses reported someone threw a bag containing animal feces at the memorial cross, and GPS data from Hays’s court-ordered ankle monitor allegedly placed him at the scene, resulting in an additional charge of outraging public decency and a return to custody.

Does anyone have information about the January 11 incident or the earlier dispute between Vaught and Hays?