Two Arkansas brothers jailed in Oklahoma in the 2010 murder of a 22-yearold Fort Smith woman were charged Friday with forcible sodomy in connection with the case.
LeFlore County District Attorney Jeff Smith added the sodomy charge while continuing a preliminary hearing for one of the brothers, Johnathen Thacker, 24. He and his sibling, Elvis Thacker, also 24, are charged with first-degree murder inthe Sept. 13, 2010, death of Briana Ault. The brothers are 11 months apart in age.
First-degree murder in Oklahoma is punishable by death, life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Smith has not said whether he will seek the death penalty in the Ault case.
Ault’s body was found naked and with her throat cut in a pond off Texas Road in Pocola, Okla., the same day she was killed.
The Thacker brothers, already facing felony chargesin Arkansas, became suspects in the case and were formally charged Sept. 20, 2010.
Information filed with the charges indicate that Elvis Thacker texted Ault around 2 a.m. on Sept. 13 while she was with a friend at the Rooster bar on Garrison Avenue in Fort Smith.
Ault told the friend that the text was from an ex-boyfriend and that he was going to give her $50 to give him a ride. She never returned, but the friend said she received a text two hours later saying the ex-boyfriend got anotherride and Ault was headed home to bed.
An affidavit filed with the charges against the Thackers said Ault picked up the brothers in Fort Smith and they forced her to drive to the pond in Pocola. About 4 a.m., Johnathen Thacker texted Ault’s friend from Ault’s phone, and at 6 a.m., Ault’s 2005 orange Chevrolet Cavalier was found on fire at an intersection in Fort Smith.
Johnathen and Elvis Thacker were sentenced to 60 years and 50 years, respectively, for crimes theycommitted in Fort Smith and were serving their concurrent sentences in the Arkansas Department of Correction. On Aug. 29, they were transferred to the LeFlore County Detention Center in Oklahoma, where they are being held without bail.
Johnathen’s preliminary hearing, originally scheduled for Friday, was continued until Feb. 21. Elvis Thacker’s preliminary hearing has been put on hold while he undergoes an evaluation to determine whether he hasa mental defect that would prevent him from assisting in his defense. An evaluation to determine his competency to stand trial has already been completed, Smith said.
Elvis Thacker underwent a forensic evaluation by a Little Rock doctor early lastyear before disposition of the charges that were pending against the brothers in Arkansas. The examiner, Dr. Paul L. Deyoub, said in a report that he found Elvis Thacker had the capacity tounderstand the proceedings against him and had the capacity to assist effectively in his defense. Deyoub also said the older Thacker did not have a mental disease or defect.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/17/2012