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‘I sentence you to be man and wife’
You don’t see this kind of wedding every day. An Oklahoma man recently was sentenced to prison and married to his girlfriend on the same day by the same county judge, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Oklahoma County District Court Judge Jerry Bass first sentenced the man to four years in prison after he pled guilty to a firearm charge. Minutes later, Bass presided over a marriage ceremony between the prison-bound groom and his longtime girlfriend.
The wedding party included the bride’s two children. The groom wore an orange jumpsuit and matching rubber slippers with white socks. No word on the bride’s attire.
Officials went out of their way to help the couple. Two sheriff’s deputies even accompanied the soon-to-be inmate and his intended as they took the elevator in the court house down to the court clerk’s office to get a marriage license.
After tying the knot, the happy couple kissed. But they will have to delay the honeymoon. Authorities immediately whisked the man away to start serving his sentence.
Bass took the unusual sequence of events in stride. “It’s what we do as judges,” he told The Oklahoman. “We conduct legal business, and from time to time we conduct marriages.”
