Appeals court upholds Oken death sentence

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A divided Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence Monday for Steven Oken, who was only a month from being executed last March when his sentenced was stayed by the state’s highest court.

Oken was convicted of the 1987 slaying of a 20-year-old newlywed, Dawn Marie Garvin. She was the first of three women he was convicted of killing in Maryland and Maine.

Monday’s ruling came in Oken’s fourth appeal to the state’s highest court and was the second time his sentence was upheld by a 4-3 vote.

Oken was convicted of murdering three women in 1987. Two weeks after killing Garvin, he sexually assaulted and murdered his sister-in-law, Patricia Hirt, in Maryland. He then traveled to Maine, where he killed Lori Ward, a motel clerk. He was sentenced to life in prison for the slayings of Hirt and Ward.