Marijuana business owner charged with murder after Oklahoma explosion kills 2
FILE - Mug shot of Ryan Bassham, 35. (Tulsa County Sheriff's Office)
The owner of an Oklahoma marijuana extraction facility has been charged with murder after two employees died in an explosion last week.
Oklahoma man charged with murder
Dig deeper:
Ryan Bassham, 35, turned himself in over the weekend after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
He was released on a $2 million bond.
Investigators believe Bassham purchased the facility, Solo Extracts, earlier this year.
2 die in explosion
The backstory:
The two victims, Michael Newman and Stephen Scott, both worked for Bassham, said Adam Jones, spokesman for the Tulsa County district attorney’s office.
He said prosecutors believe the employees were unlawfully manufacturing hazardous chemicals that wound up creating an explosion.
Big picture view:
A fire marshal told authorities the business was seeking an updated marijuana license and narcotics registration, according to court records. Medical marijuana is legal in Oklahoma.
According to court documents, Newman told a paramedic on the way to the hospital that the area had not been well ventilated and that the explosion happened after he unplugged something. He was conscious when paramedics arrived but later died at the hospital.
A fire marshal who inspected the facility in January found an outdated fire suppression system and equipment commonly used in marijuana manufacturing. The marshal returned to the facility after the explosion and found large amounts of liquid propane and other hazardous material that were not there in January, according to court records.
The owner of a neighboring marijuana manufacturing business told police he spoke with Bassham earlier this year after noticing high levels of carbon dioxide on a building sensor. He described being lightheaded when he walked into the building.
No one else was harmed in the explosion, but multiple nearby businesses were damaged, authorities said.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from reporting by The Associated Press.