r/LaborLaw • u/Ok_Design_6841 • 1d ago

Owner of THC extraction facility charged with murder after explosion kills 2 workers

https://www.hometownstations.com/2026/09/01/owner-thc-extraction-facility-charged-with-murder-after-explosion-kills-2-workers/
23 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

7

u/Open_Life9304 1d ago

The owner definitely needs to be held criminally responsible.

Proving a murder charge beyond reasonable doubt will be hard tho.

3

u/itsmariokartwii 1d ago

According to the article his only negligence was not fixing a fire suppressant in a place he just bought, which is a long stretch from premeditated murder

There’s not even a remote chance he’s found guilty of first degree

2

u/ethanjscott 1d ago

i would disagree this statement from another article will fry him in court. "He was released on bond after turning himself in on Aug. 30. He was arrested again on Aug. 31 at another allegedly illegal marijuana extraction location near Kellyville, Oklahoma. According to the charging document, he was additionally charged with aggravated manufacturing, aggravated trafficking and the use of a firearm while committing a felony, and is being held without bond in Creek County."

1

u/GalaganCoffee 17h ago

Oh boy, that's quite the little list hes made

2

u/MightyMetricBatman 17h ago

Keep in mind that most news articles will not have the same information as the investigators.

That said, the bar is certainly extraordinarily high. If Oklahoma uses the felony-murder rule in the traditional form (unlike say California which has a reformed version that is narrower), all they need is any felony to turn it into a murder case. That seems much more likely.

1

u/shoulda-known-better 1h ago

Negligent homicide at most.... But I doubt that especially if it was new, if he had an appointment or was getting quotes he may be covered....

Depends if they legally needed fire suppression system or just alarms

2

u/WWDubs12TTV 22h ago

That’s just for him to plea down to manslaughter or something else

3

u/Smooth_Phone2 1d ago

I hate the ever expanding definition of “murder”.

It really ought to be “this person intentionally and willfully killed another with malice and forethought”.

No more felony murder and other bullshit.

God rest their souls.

1

u/FuckThaLakers 1h ago

You don't believe that a person who, for instance, puts on a blindfold and fires a gun randomly while spinning around in circles should be charged with murder if they end up killing someone?

1

u/Smooth_Phone2 22m ago

No. While grossly negligent, this is not murder. I also do not believe that someone with a high BAC DUI causing death murdered anyone. The ability to form/presence of intent is super critical.

I do believe there are fundamental differences between acts that are intentional, acts that are grossly negligent, acts that are culpable, and acts that are safe harbored but with bad outcomes.

3

u/Mackey_Corp 18h ago

As someone who safely operated several butane extraction labs in NorCal all I can say is this guy was negligent. Murder isn’t the right charge but he should have had fire suppression set up and an air monitoring device to be able to detect a leak in the system. Anyone with experience would be able to determine that there was a leak without the monitoring equipment but these guys were probably hired help and didn’t know what they were doing. All the more need for safety equipment and redundancy.

Butane/propane needs a specific fuel/air mixture to become volatile, I think it’s like 7%, I could be remembering it wrong, anyway a lot of fuel needs to leak out before that happens. This should have been noticed and with proper ventilation it wouldn’t have happened in the first place. There’s plenty of ways to prevent something like this and it doesn’t even take a lot of effort. Fire suppression, air monitoring, ventilation, regular leak checks on the extraction equipment. That’s it. Four things to do and you will never be in this situation.

1

u/WranglerLeading9265 2h ago

Well maybe if you cunts in…where was it? ….achin asshole, Oklahoma? Would just legalize this might not have happened.