Thacker's guilt, acquittal jurors only choices

POTEAU, Okla. -- Jurors in LeFlore County District Court in Oklahoma are expected to begin deliberating today in the first-degree murder and forcible sodomy trial of Elvis Aaron Thacker, accused of killing 22-year-old Briana Ault on Sept. 13, 2010.

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District Judge Jonathan Sullivan told the jury of six women, six men and five alternates Thursday that the nearly three weeks of testimony in the case was over, and that they will hear jury instructions and closing arguments today.

Oklahoma is seeking the death penalty for Thacker. If he's convicted, a second stage of the trial will begin, and jurors will deliberate his sentence.

His brother Johnathen Thacker, who had also been charged with first-degree murder and forcible sodomy, pleaded guilty to the murder charge in April 2014. As part of the plea agreement, he avoided the death penalty and in exchange agreed to testify against his brother. Johnathen Thacker testified that he is to be sentenced to life in prison without parole after his brother's trial.

LeFlore County First Assistant District Attorney Margaret Nicholson presented rebuttal testimony Thursday morning, after which attorneys discussed jury instructions with Sullivan.

Sullivan said he would not allow an instruction that would let jurors convict Elvis Thacker of being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Gretchen Mosley, the head of Elvis Thacker's defense team, expressed surprise at the announcement. "Your honor, that's our defense," she said.

Sullivan pointed out that if a crime of accessory after the fact occurred in this case, it was not committed in Oklahoma but in Arkansas.

Mosley argued that without the accessory option, the jurors' only choice would be to convict Elvis Thacker of murder or acquit him. She said jurors should be allowed to convict him of the lesser charge because that's what she believes the evidence showed he did.

She said "this multijurisdiction thing" was interfering with her client's Sixth Amendment right to a defense.

The defense contends that Johnathen Thacker killed Ault and blamed it on his brother, and that Elvis Thacker only helped Johnathen Thacker burn Ault's car afterward. Ault's orange Chevrolet Cavalier was found in flames off Tulsa Street in Fort Smith about 6 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2010, a few blocks from where the brothers had been staying with a friend.

Testimony in the trial was that Ault drove away from a downtown Fort Smith bar about 2 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2010, after she received a text message from an ex-boyfriend asking her to give him a ride to Texas Road. Later that day, her nude body was found floating in a secluded pond off Texas Road just across the state line in Pocola, Okla.

Johnathen Thacker testified that Elvis Thacker killed Ault. Also, the state introduced multiple confessions from Elvis Thacker saying that he killed Ault and that Johnathen Thacker was with him when he did it.

On Thursday, Nicholson called two Fort Smith police detectives as rebuttal witnesses.

Jeff Carter and James Melson testified that on Sept. 15, 2010, officers announced that they were the police as they kicked in the door of the Tulsa Square Apartments unit where Elvis and Johnathen Thacker were staying.

They said they and other officers went to the apartment to serve arrest warrants on the brothers in a rape case. At the time, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Shawn Ward was present because he wanted to question Elvis Thacker about Ault's death. By then, investigators had reportedly learned that Elvis Thacker's phone was used to send the text messages to Ault asking for the ride to Texas Road.

The detectives said that after they kicked in the door, Elvis Thacker attacked the first detective who entered the apartment. That was Melson, who was disguised as an Oklahoma Gas and Electric employee. He said he was in disguise so he could access the apartment and see if the Thackers were there.

Elvis Thacker, armed with a knife, cut and stabbed Melson in the throat, side and back, Melson testified Thursday. Seeing the attack, other officers shot Elvis Thacker twice and stunned him with two Tasers.

Mosley had said police officers illegally entered the apartment without a search warrant, and that Elvis and Johnathen Thacker were justified in defending themselves because all of the officers were in plainclothes and never identified themselves as police.

The trial is to resume at 8:30 a.m. today.

State Desk on 04/29/2016

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