Inset left: Rana Sievert (Oklahoma County Detention Center). Inset right: Brianne Torres (Obituary). Background: The apartment complex where Sievert shot and killed Torres in Oklahoma City (Google Maps).
An Oklahoma woman is facing several decades behind bars for killing her girlfriend during an argument in their bedroom.
Late last week, Rana Sievert, 27, was convicted by a jury of her peers in Oklahoma County on one count of manslaughter in the first degree over the 2022 shooting death of 24-year-old Brianne Torres.
In turn, jurors recommended a 35-year sentence, but the defendant will be formally sentenced by a judge on June 11.
The underlying incident occurred during the early morning hours on Oct. 7, 2022, at an apartment complex on Rockwell Avenue in Oklahoma City, according to the Oklahoma City Police Department.
"Sievert fatally shot her on-again, off-again girlfriend, Brianne Torres, around midnight," the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals explained in an unpublished opinion related to a pretrial order that barred certain evidence from being introduced during the defendant's jury trial.
Earlier in the case, the trial court disqualified evidence that Sievert tried to cut off Torres' leg after she shot and killed her — on the basis that the would-be mutilation was not closely connected to the manslaughter itself, was not necessary to give the jury a complete understanding, and was not central to the chain of events.
The state had wanted to tell jurors about the cutting or dismemberment of the victim's leg.
The trial court judge, however, said the evidence was relevant only "to rebut or refute any claim of self-defense that may be made" by Sievert, and ruled that the evidence could only be offered in rebuttal if Sievert claimed self-defense.
The prosecutor appealed and the appellate court ruled for the state — in a ruling recounting the night of the homicide and "Sievert's post-mortem actions pertaining to the mutilation of the victim's leg."
"After the shooting, Sievert placed the gun on the bed and paced around the apartment before calling 911 some sixty to ninety minutes later," the opinion reads. "She rendered no aid. Sievert admitted cutting Torres' leg during her police interview and attributed her action to paranoia from the 'weed' she had smoked earlier and her anger with Torres over the altercation."
The appeals court also recited the facts of the shooting itself, at length:
Officers found Torres naked on her back on the bedroom floor with a gunshot wound to the chest and a large, post-mortem laceration above her right knee. Sievert claimed the two had a verbal altercation over relationship issues that turned into a physical altercation involving pushing and shoving. Sievert said that Torres got her in a headlock in the kitchen from which she escaped. Knowing there was a gun in the nightstand, Sievert said she headed for the bedroom to get it and tussled with Torres down the hallway. Both women reached for the drawer with the gun, but Sievert managed to gain control of the pistol first. Both women took a step back and were six to eight feet apart when Sievert pointed the gun at Torres, cocked it and fired a single shot. Sievert claimed she acted out of fear.
"Sievert admitted cutting the victim's leg out of anger with her from the fight they had which led to the fatal incident," the opinion goes on. "The evidence of her fury and her actions of harm toward the deceased victim in the aftermath of the shooting is circumstantial evidence bearing on Sievert's intent to kill the victim and consciousness of guilt."
The appeals court ruling was handed down in early April. Then, with the evidence of the leg-cutting included in the prosecutors' case, Sievert's trial began earlier this month.
During the trial, jurors learned that Sievert admittedly pulled Torres' own handgun from a nightstand and shot her during a fight, according to a courtroom report by Oklahoma City-based ABC affiliate KOCO.
"This verdict and the recommended sentence reflect the seriousness of the defendant's actions and the devastating consequences of that night," Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna said in a press release announcing the verdict. "While no outcome can undo the loss suffered by the victim's loved ones, we hope this verdict brings them a measure of justice for Bree."