Jury convicts Ponca City man on misdemeanor drug charges

NEWKIRK — A jury convicted Odis Lee Lawson Jr., 57, Ponca City, today of two misdemeanor drug offenses. 

They chose to make no finding on a felony count of unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute after two past felony convictions.

Lawson’s attorney, Jarrod Stevenson, said that Lawson admitted to committing the crimes and that he asked the jury to find him guilty of the misdemeanors.

“Sometimes defendants are forced to go to jury trial because the district attorney’s plea offer is ridiculous,” said Stevenson. “That case today. It should have never been filed as a felony and the jury agreed.”

Sentencing is set for next week.

Brown was arrested by Ponca City police on June 26, 2025, during a traffic stop in the 400 block of west Oklahoma.

Police report that Lawson was the front seat passenger. He was asked by police to exit the vehicle. Police report that as he exited, a knife became visible which he left in the vehicle at the officer’s request.

Police conducted a search and report locating a baggie full of baggies, a cigarette holder containing three baggies, each reportedly containing meth, and five powdery rocks that later tested positive as cocaine.

Lawson’s criminal background in Kay County includes a rape conviction in 1988 in which he was given a five-year suspended sentence.

In 1996 he was convicted in Hamilton County, Tennessee of facilitation of murder in the first degree and sentenced to 20 years in the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

In 2002 he was found guilty by a Kay County jury on a felony count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison. According to Department of Correction information, he was released from prison on Sept. 3, 2024.