POTEAU, Okla. -- Jurors in Elvis Thacker's murder trial Monday watched a video showing the aftermath of his arrest in which he was shot after stabbing a Fort Smith police officer.
"You want me to help you, you help me with what I need to know," the video showed a Fort Smith police officer telling Thacker as he lay on the floor of an apartment bleeding from two gunshot wounds.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Shawn Ward testified Monday he was concerned Thacker might have died of his wounds before receiving medical attention. On the video he told Thacker he wanted to give him a chance to clear his conscience, "if you have one."
Later on Sept. 15, 2010, Thacker confessed to Ward at Sparks Regional Medical Center before going into surgery he killed Briana Ault by cutting her throat. He has recanted the confession.
Thacker, 28, is on trial in LeFlore County on first-degree murder and forcible sodomy charges related to the death of Ault, of Fort Smith, who was left floating in a pond in Pocola, Okla., on Sept. 13, 2010.
The pond is just across the state line in Oklahoma. Ward said officers from both states had to decide in what state the pond is in order to determine jurisdiction over the case.
Thacker and his brother, Johnathen, 27, were developed as suspects in Ault's death. Oklahoma agents accompanied Fort Smith police detectives to the Tulsa Square Apartments where the officers wanted to arrest the brothers on warrants in a rape unrelated to Ault's murder.
Johnathen Thacker pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and forcible rape in April 2014 and testified against his brother last week.
Fort Smith officer Eric Williams shot the video using a camera he wore over his ear as part of the department's participation in the production of a Turner Broadcasting System show called POV.
The video showed Thacker lying on his back in the corner of the living room, eyes closed, unmoving, an arm slung over his face. His black shirt was pulled up exposing his lower torso where he had been shot.
Officers stood around him for several minutes waiting for medical personnel to arrive. At times, Ward and other officers spoke to Thacker, asking him to tell them what he knew about Ault's death and to keep him from slipping into unconsciousness.
"Keep breathing, Elvis," one officer is heard telling Thacker.
It didn't appear the officers offered any assistance as he lay on the floor for several minutes before the ambulance arrived.
"This is your opportunity," Ward says squatting over Thacker at one point. "Is there anything you want to tell me about Briana?"
Ward testified earlier Thacker told him in the ambulance he would tell Ward anything he wanted to know about Ault if he would save him.
While Thacker lay on the floor in the apartment, wounded Fort Smith detective James Melson sat on a pickup in the parking lot as another officer held a compress to his bloody neck while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Melson recovered from his wounds.
Elvis Thacker pleaded guilty in Sebastian County Circuit Court to attempted capital murder in August 2011 in the attack on Melson and to kidnapping in the unrelated rape case. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Johnathen Thacker pleaded guilty at the same time to attempted first-degree murder and kidnapping and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Melson was stabbed when he and other officers rushed into the apartment. According to testimony, Thacker was hit with four stun gun darts in addition to being shot twice after stabbing Melson.
Ward said officers announced themselves as police before kicking open the door. Thacker's defense team contends police didn't identified themselves before entering.
Because the Thackers didn't know the intruders were police, his attorneys argue, they were justified in fighting the officers when they barged into the apartment.
Robert Walden, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation head agent in the Ault investigation, said Ault's cellphone records show she exchanged more than 20 text messages with Elvis Thacker's phone on the night and early morning she died.
Testimony continues today at 8:30 a.m.
NW News on 04/19/2016