15 Nov Life in Prison without the Possibility of Parole for Claremore Man
Kevin Tyler Foster
CF-2018-784
In the Media:
KOTV
The Tulsa World
KJRH
Tulsa World
KTUL
Foster Takes the Stand
News on Six
Hearing Leads to Trial
Preliminary Proceedings
KTUL
November 15, 2019 — A jury finds Kevin Tyler Foster guilty on all charges and recommends the maximum sentence for each crime making the sum total; life in prison without any possibility of parole. Exactly one year, to the day, since Foster murdered Rick Swan and set his body on fire.
Prosecutors District Attorney Matt Ballard and Chief Prosecutor Isaac Sheilds proved to the jury 33 year old Foster is guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, desecration of a corpse and robbery with a dangerous weapon in the Nov. 15, 2018, death of 60-year-old Rick Swan, whose body was found in his RV on his Claremore area property.
As part of a bitter feud between Foster and his former step-father Foster also vandalized his mother’s and Swan’s headstone and replaced it at her burial site with the name Foster rather than Swan.
Foster’s attorney, and then Foster himself when he took the stand, claimed self-defense but the jury found the real motive was greed and anger toward Rick Swan.
DA Ballard told jurors “It’s time for Kevin Foster to face the justice he tried to evade.” referring to Google searches investigators found on Foster’s phone shortly after the murder trying to learn which countries don’t extradite to the U.S. and checking flight schedules to some of those countries.
Additionally
investigators recovered a loop-motion image from Foster’s phone; it showed Swan’s
dead and burning body.
Ballard explained Foster “had to get his trophy shot” and attempted to delete
it once he realized he could be a suspect.
Foster’s self-defense claim did not surface until just before his trial began
and it wasn’t something he ever claimed
to any of the members of law enforcement involved in the investigation.
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