Eighteen years ago Blues icon Selby Minner filed for a permanent protective order against her brother Louis Carl Guenther after he allegedly verbally and physically abused her.
Tuesday morning, June 10, Guenther, 68, was found by deputies sitting on the grounds of the Honey Creek Battlefield in Rentiesville, covered in blood and holding a hammer, according to court records.
He reportedly had been sitting there for hours, until a concerned citizen called authorities and asked that they check on the suspicious person.
Across the street from the historic Battlefield, where hundreds died in a Civil War confrontation, Guenther’s 75-year-old sister lay dead on the floor of the Blues club she and her late husband DC Minner spent decades turning into a legendary destination for Blues fans.
According to a Probable Cause Affidavit filed by Kevin Branscum, Investigator for the District Attorney’s Office District 25, Guenther confessed to making the decision on June 9 to kill his sister, then beat her with a hammer and then stabbed her to death before walking across the street to wait.
The defendant is charged in McIntosh County District Court with murder in the first degree – with deliberate intent.
He made his initial appearance in court on Friday, June 13. Associate District Judge Brendon Bridges entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Guenther and ordered him to return to court on July 23 for a competency hearing. He is being held without bond. Checotah resident Shelly Reynolds, who says Selby was her mentor and inspired her to begin playing guitar again, attended Friday’s hearing. She said she is organizing a demonstration in support of Selby to take place at 8 a.m. in front of the courthouse the day of the next hearing.
“Bring your guitars and Sing for Selby,” she said.
A Celebration of Life Ceremony was held at 5 p.m. Sunday, June 15, at the Honey Springs site.
Reynolds also is helping to promote a petition called “The Selby Minner Act: Ending Mental Health Abandonment in Oklahoma,” found at change.org.
The person who started the petition is identified as Nick Farrow.
Reynolds said the state didn’t do enough to protect her mentor, who was granted a permanent protective order against her brother on July 27, 2007.
Selby alleged in the petition against her brother, who lived with her and her now late husband at the time, that he became belligerent on July 22 and on July 24 was verbally and physically abusive to her, “throttling me and screaming menacingly in my face. We asked him to leave. It took him three hours … later that night he came back and quietly destroyed our sign in the front (value $500).”
The petition noted that “The petitioner is in immediate and present danger of abuse from the defendant and an emergency ex parte order is necessary to protect the petitioner from serious harm.”
Guenther was ordered to have no contact with the petitioner, either in person or by telephone, at any time or place.
It also ordered him “to not abuse, threaten, injure, assault, molest, stalk, harass or otherwise interfere with the petitioner.”
The Selby Minner Act petition alleges that her brother may have been schizophrenic.
The summary of the petition states: “The Selby Minner Act is a legislative proposal that addresses the urgent and growing crisis of individuals with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, who repeatedly refuse treatment and fall through societal gaps, resulting in preventable tragedies. Named in memory of Selby Minner, a respected community leader whose death exposed systemic failures, the Act aims to create structured legal pathways for early intervention, emergency holds, medical guardianship, and coordinated agency response.
Legislative Goals: 1. Protect the public and individuals from untreated schizophreniarelated risks. 2. Create emergency intervention tools when individuals refuse treatment. 3. Empower families and the state to act before tragedy. 4. Use existing Social Security and state data to help locate and stabilize individuals. 5. Close the loopholes that allow individuals to walk out of care facilities untreated. 6. Ensure all relevant agencies are required to share critical data and communicate across departments.
