Oklahoma is seeking the death penalty against two Crawford County men charged with murdering and sodomizing a 21-year-old Fort Smith woman in 2010.
LeFlore County District Attorney Jeffrey Smith filed a bill of particulars in LeFlore County District Court in Poteau on Wednesday against Elvis and Jonathan Thacker, both 25, of Cedarville.
The men are charged with first-degree murder and forcible sodomy in the death of Brianna Jane Ault, 21, by cutting her throat after sexually assaulting her at a Pocola, Okla., pond on Sept. 13, 2010.
The bill of particulars says the state is seeking death against the two men forthree reasons: The men previously were convicted of felonies involving the use or threat of violence.
The brothers pleaded guilty in Sebastian County Circuit Court in August 2011 to charges of attempted capital murder for attacking a Fort Smith police officer during their 2010 arrest. They also had pleaded guilty to a charge of kidnapping in the rape at knife point of a 40-year-old woman on Sept. 3, 2010.
The bill of particulars on Jonathan Thacker stated that he was convicted in May 2009 in Crawford County Circuit Court of second-degree battery of a law enforcement officer.
The bill of particulars stated that the men killedAult to avoid or prevent arrest and prosecution.
Jonathan Thacker told Fort Smith police that one reason his brother wanted to kill Ault was that in the unrelated Sept. 3, 2010, rape, he let the victim go afterward, and she reported the rape to police, which led to a warrant being issued for their arrest. Jonathan Thacker said his brother didn’t want that to happen again.
The bill of particulars also stated the brothers probably would commit violent acts again that would constitute a continuing threat to society. It listed the Arkansas convictions of the men as evidence of the continuing threat.
The two men have pleaded innocent to the chargesand are being held in the LeFlore County jail awaiting trial. Jonathan Thacker’s trial was scheduled for Jan. 13 but has been canceled. A new trial date has not been set.
Elvis Thacker is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges from District Judge John Sullivan on Feb. 12, according to the court clerk’s office. A trial date is expected to be set at that hearing.
According to testimony in Jonathan Thacker’s Feb. 21 preliminary hearing, the brothers had been awake for days in September 2010 on a methamphetamine binge, and Elvis Thacker wanted to rob Ault to buy more drugs. He was under the mistaken impression that Ault had won more than $1,000 at a casino.
Elvis Thacker contacted Ault by text and asked for a ride and offered to buy the gas. But when she picked up the brothers, he gave her directions tothe Pocola pond, which is just across the Arkansas line in Oklahoma.
At the pond, Elvis Thacker forced Ault to have oral sex with both brothers before killing her and leaving her naked body in the pond where a fisherman found it. Accordingto the testimony in Jonathan Thacker’s preliminary hearing, Elvis Thacker slit Ault’s throat after she fought off his attempt to drown her.
Fort Smith police were led to the brothers after finding a record of Elvis Thacker’s phone call to Ault in her cellphone.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/06/2013