An Oklahoma family has received a nearly $12 million settlement following a botched police investigation and wrongful death lawsuit over the death of their teenage daughter.
On December 8, 2020, Heather Williams found her 14-year-old daughter, Alaunna Raffield, inside the family’s garage with a gunshot wound to the head.
Although authorities quickly ruled her death a suicide, “nothing” in the teen’s journal where she routinely “expressed herself” pointed to suicidal ideations.
“The evidence doesn’t add up,” the deceased teen’s mother said. fox25. “She loved life.”
Two years later, Raffield’s parents, Heather and Kevin Williams, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2022 against an 18-year-old man, Cody Baker, who had allegedly been harassing the teen.
Fourteen-year-old Alaunna Raffield was found inside the garage of her family home with a gunshot wound to the head on December 8, 2020.
Although authorities quickly ruled her death a suicide, “nothing” in the teen’s journal where she routinely “expressed herself” pointed to suicidal ideation.
The Prague Police Department identified a suspicious relationship between the couple when he admitted to police that he logged into Raffield’s social media account after her death to take photographs.
Upon further investigation, police revealed nude photographs of an unidentified woman and other inappropriate messages between the couple, some of them from Raffield telling the man to stop communicating with her.
He also admitted to investigators that he was responsible for multiple cryptic messages sent from his account after his death.
However, police did not include in their investigation into Raffield’s death that Baker had access to a vehicle on the night of his death, and his family said their testimony about his account of that night was complicated.
‘I discovered a message saying that Baker was “in bed” on Monday 12/07/2020. I asked him where he was in bed and he told me that he would have to be with his grandparents in Prague. This contradicts what he told me earlier in the interview,” police reports from Prague Police Department officer Matthew Hensley revealed.
Raffield’s parents, Heather and Kevin Williams, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2022 against an 18-year-old man, Cody Baker, who had allegedly been harassing the teen.
The Prague Police Department identified a suspicious relationship between Raffield and Baker when he admitted to police that he logged into her social media account after her death to take photographs.
Over the course of the lawsuit it was determined that Baker had used at least six different names or aliases and that his name legally changed to ‘Cody Mullen’ after Raffield’s death.
Baker also called himself ‘Cody Terrell’ during the period in which he allegedly harassed Raffield.
Additionally, both parents claim they never heard a gunshot that fateful December night. News4 reported.
Police said the gun Raffield used was also found several feet from his body and has never been positively identified as the weapon used in his death.
In addition to the apparently botched investigation, an examination for gunpowder residue on the teen’s hands or head was never performed.
The clothes he was wearing were tested, but only after a funeral home washed them three times.
The Prague Police Department said they closed the case, but the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said they never opened one.
Living up to their lingering suspicions of foul play, Raffield’s parents moved forward with their lawsuit.
Two years after Raffield’s death, no criminal charges have yet been filed against Baker.
Following the teen’s untimely death, the family has organized the Alaunna Raffield Fund with the goal of assisting local law enforcement partners with the cost of attending training facilitated by OSBI.
Baker failed to appear for any hearings except the final hearing in the case, unsuccessfully claiming that he was not properly served with the lawsuit.
The Lincoln County District Court judge ultimately decided Baker was “too late” and sided with Raffield’s family, court records show.
Two years after Raffield’s death, no criminal charges have yet been filed against Baker.
The civil case played out in Lincoln County District Court over that two-year span with minimal updates until Sept. 12, 2024, when Brandon Pierson, the family’s attorney, said, “We got a judgment of $11, 6 million this week.”
“Unfortunately, being civil in nature, it is symbolic… but forever and officially applies legal culpability… in the death of Alaunna Raffield.”
The sentence amounted to a whopping $11,688,485 and was based on punitive damages for “shocking behavior,” for pain and suffering, loss of future income, and loss of companionship.
Raffield’s projected future earnings were calculated under the assumption that the teenager, who loved baking pies, would have become a pastry chef if her death had not been caused by Baker, an allegedly obsessed stalker who called the 14-year-old cheerleader “my forever.” love’.
Pierson added that he strongly believes, along with Raffield’s family, that the OSBI should have handled the case to avoid potentially having to seek civil damages.
Following the teen’s untimely death, the family organized the Alaunna Raffield Fund with the goal of assisting local law enforcement partners with the cost of attending training facilitated by the OSBI.
