August 12, 2024
After a two-day preliminary hearing last week, a Carter man’s charges were upgraded from first-degree manslaughter to first-degree murder with malice aforethought. The hearing aimed to determine if there was probable cause to charge 37-year-old Clayton Samson Hays with the shooting death of 42-year-old Colter Vaught, which occurred on the morning of January 11 outside a company located in the 900 block of S. Merritt Road. Hays had requested that all charges be dropped, citing self-defense.
The hearings included Hays’s interrogation tape and 911 call, where he claimed not to know the identity of the victim. Testimonies during the hearing indicated that Hays knew Vaught through mutual acquaintances.
The judge ultimately denied the request to drop the charges, ruling that there was probable cause for the upgraded murder charge.
Hays is scheduled to return to Beckham County District Court on September 18 at 1:30 p.m.
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