Tulsa District Attorney Tim Harris will seek the death penalty against the two young men charged with the Sept. 18, 2011, murders of ORU freshman Carissa Horton and her boyfriend, Ethan Nichols.

Harris announced his intent Tuesday during the arraignment hearings for Jerard Dwaine Davis and Darren Price, who have been held without bond in the Tulsa County jail since their arrests Sept. 19, a day after the bodies of Horton and Nichols were discovered in an east Tulsa city park.

No trial date has yet been set by Chief Judge William Musseman Jr. of the Tulsa County District Court. On Tuesday, he set the next hearing in the case for April 26.

Donna Ross stepped out of her apartment at 33 West Ave. just after 5:30 a.m. She was on her way to boot camp, an ORU exercise program she participated in before work.

As she made the 10-minute drive from her home to the Aerobics Center, the November morning seemed as demure as the gray road ribboned before her.

She said she had no idea that a life-changing event was literally crackling to fruition back at her apartment complex.

Carissa Horton and Ethan Nichols had given much to the town of Keokuk, Iowa, even though they had only recently reached adulthood. They had only a few weeks to give back to their new home of Tulsa.

Tragedy struck the ORU community on Monday when freshman Carissa Horton was found dead alongside her boyfriend, 21-year-old Ethan Nichols, at Hicks Park, near 34th Street and Mingo Road. The park is about nine miles from the ORU campus.