She shot him through his cheatin’ heart ...

The murder case of Zoella Mae Dorland

By Joy Hampton

November 5, 2009 — (Editor’s Note: This is second in a four-part series on Claremore attorney Jack Gordon, Jr., and some of Rogers County’s most infamous murder trials.)

Zoella Mae Dorland lived in a trailer in the Port City Mobile Home Park in Catoosa. Patti Adamson lived next door.

In 1975, Zoella was charged in the Feb. 4 shooting death of her husband Clarence. Claremore attorney Jack Gordon, Jr. was assigned to the case. It was his first murder trial.

“She shot him dead through the heart with a .44 magnum in his girlfriend’s trailer right next to hers,” said Gordon.

Newspaper accounts referred to Adamson as the neighbor.

Larry Larkin was the staff writer on the courthouse beat for the Claremore Daily Progress at that time. He reported on the April 1975 murder trial, describing Zoella as the mother of “three small children.”

Gordon said Dorland, Zoella’s husband, had a reputation as a heavy drinker.

The following accounting of Zoella’s case was compiled from the combination of Gordon’s memories, Larkin’s stories as recorded in the Progress, and a variety of other sources and records.

Dorland was killed by a single shot. Zoella was alleged to have stood outside and shot her husband through the open door of Patti Adamson’s trailer.

District Judge William J. Whistler heard the case. District Attorney Sid Wise prosecuted the case assisted by Bill Higgins. Witnesses for the State included Deputy Sheriff Bill Murphy and investigator J.B. Hamby.

In 1973, Catoosa had hired Hamby as its first chief of police. He was later murdered, killed in the line of duty by two gunmen during an armed holdup of the Catoosa Tag Agency in 1978. That murder is another infamous story in itself.

In 1975, Hamby was a seasoned veteran of law enforcement and already something of a legend. He had around 15 years experience at the time of the Dorland murder trial.

“J.B. Hamby single-handedly cleaned up Catoosa,” said Gordon of the legendary lawman.

Gordon had been in law practice for three years and was still building his trial experience. He spent many of his early days in law practice examining land titles.

During his cross-examination of Hamby, Gordon said he learned the meaning of humility.

“He turned me every which way but loose,” said Gordon.

Gordon’s defense was not without merit, however. According to the newspaper account, Gordon succeeded in suppressing written and oral statements by his defendant that were admissions of guilt.

The jury was comprised of seven men and five women.

Gordon placed five witnesses on the stand after the State rested. Three of those were character witnesses and included former Rogers County Associate District Judge Ava Powell.

Dorland was intoxicated when he was killed.

Gordon remembers questioning the pathologist who performed the autopsy on the high level of alcohol in Dorland’s blood stream at the time of his death.

“Isn’t that level consistent with death?” asked Gordon.

“He was killed by a shot to the heart,” the doctor countered.

The trial lasted two days.

The Progress reports that the jury deliberated for six hours before reducing the murder charge to First Degree Manslaughter. They recommended a four-and-a-half year prison sentence in accordance with that verdict. “Catoosa Woman Found Guilty of Manslaughter” was the headline the day following the verdict.

“Defense attorney Jack Gordon, Jr.’s closing statements tried to stress the importance of a statement about ‘a man with a gun,’” reported Larkin.

The confusion in wording was based on Adamson’s first words to police. It sounds like Gordon was desperate to find a defense in this seeming, “slam-dunk” murder case. Wise had ballistics and other experts along with the eyewitness testimony of Adamson.

Gordon also tried to show that Dorland was shot with a smaller caliber weapon than the .44 in her possession. He, like the investigators, had made his own trip to Adamson’s trailer to gather evidence.

Investigators were not pleased. Since when did attorneys on pro bono cases pry bullets out of walls?

It didn’t help. Based on the accounts, Zoella clearly pulled the trigger. How she managed to hit her drunk husband, cheating or otherwise (Adamson said the couple had been over for dinner), in the heart seems statistically, highly improbable.

Whether by blind luck or good aim, Clarence Dorland was dead, and all fingers pointed to Zoella.

Maybe the Rogers County jury thought a mother of three had the right to shoot her drunken, cheating husband. Maybe Gordon planted a seed of doubt.

In the end, even the judge didn’t want Zoella to go to prison.

The real controversy surrounding the case came at formal sentencing when Judge Whistler gave Zoella a suspended sentence.

Gordon said he remembers the headlines the day after sentencing as “Killer Goes Free.”

“I got a good result, but I was a terrible trial lawyer and I knew it,” said Gordon. “There was nothing artful about my defense.”

Gordon said Zoella hugged him and thanked him for caring.

The responsibility he felt toward his first murder case made a lasting impression. Gordon determined he would do better the next time a murder case came his way.

He made a promise to himself that he would become a good trial attorney.

It’s a promise he kept.

Over the course of the next decades, he would try many more murder cases and, eventually, ten death penalty cases which included killer, Gary Allen Walker.

To be continued...

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