Bethany Ault-Pyle said she has been waiting for more than five years for the LeFlore County, Okla., District Court to give her daughter justice.
Today, Elvis Thacker goes on trial on charges of first-degree murder and forcible sodomy in the Sept. 12, 2010, slaying of Briana Ault, 22. The state is seeking the death penalty for Thacker, 28, of Cedarville in Crawford County.
Ault-Pyle said that in all the court hearings she has sat through over the past five years, all the attention has been on Thacker.
"The whole judicial system is not about my daughter and I had to bear this," she said. "But I'm still fighting for justice, and I will be her voice and her face."
Ault-Pyle, of Fort Smith, said she has not had to sit alone through all the hearings. She said she has been accompanied by Pearl Sutherland, mother of 24-year-old Cassie Cotta of Fort Smith, who was strangled in December 2011 by her husband; and Colleen Allen, grandmother of Angela Allen, 16, of Van Buren, who was strangled by a man she met on the Internet.
"We've been together since our kids' murders," Ault-Pyle said.
The trial, which will be presided over by District Judge Jonathan Sullivan, will convene in Poteau, Okla., and could last a month or more. Jury selection could take all week.
Thacker's attorney, Gretchen Mosley with the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, said the death-penalty possibility adds to the involved process of selecting a jury for a murder case.
"Mr. Thacker looks forward to having his day in court," Mosley said. "We hope to get a jury that will listen to the evidence with an open mind."
District Attorney Jeff Smith said he couldn't estimate how long the trial would last but said both sides would have a large number of witnesses. He said First Assistant District Attorney Margaret Nicholson in his office will take the lead in presenting the state's case.
Among the many witnesses in the trial will be Thacker's younger brother and co-defendant, Jonathen, 27.
Jonathen Thacker pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April 2014 and agreed to testify against his brother to avoid a possible death sentence, Smith said at the time. Jonathen Thacker is to be sentenced after his brother's trial.
Just before 6 p.m. Sept. 13, 2010, the Pocola, Okla., Police Department received a phone call from a fisherman who had found the body of a naked woman floating in a pond just across the state line from Arkansas. She had two deep cuts in her throat.
The body later was identified as Ault.
About 6 a.m. Sept. 13, the Fort Smith Police Department had received a call about a car fire near the intersection of Tulsa and South 36th streets. Authorities determined the orange 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier was registered to Ault.
About 2:30 p.m. that day, Ault-Pyle went to the Fort Smith police to report her daughter missing. She said she had contacted all of her daughter's friends but that no one had seen her.
A friend, Lacey Ebarb, was the last person to be seen with Ault. She told police that she and Ault were drinking at a downtown Fort Smith bar about 2 a.m. Sept. 12 when Ault got a call from an ex-boyfriend offering to pay her $50 for a ride. Ault left to pick him up, telling Ebarb she would be back in 15 or 20 minutes.
Ebarb got a text from Ault's phone two hours later saying her ex-boyfriend had gotten another ride and that she was going home.
On Sept. 15, 2010, investigators obtained Ault's cellphone records. They showed that Elvis Thacker had called Ault just before she left to pick up the ex-boyfriend, police said.
Fort Smith police already were looking for Elvis and Jonathen Thacker because they were named in warrants charging them with the rape of a woman at knifepoint in Fort Smith on Sept. 3, 2010.
Fort Smith police and investigators with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which took over the Ault murder investigation, converged on an apartment where the brothers had been staying at 5042 S. 32nd St. about 10 p.m. Sept. 15.
Police kicked in the door to the apartment and were met by the brothers brandishing knives, reports said. Elvis Thacker stabbed Fort Smith police detective James Melson multiple times during a struggle, reports said.
After at least two officers fired stun guns at Elvis Thacker, detective Jeff Carter fired his gun at Elvis Thacker, wounding Thacker twice in the lower abdomen, reports said. He spent six weeks in the hospital recovering from the wounds.
Jonathen Thacker surrendered, records show.
As he was being transported to the hospital, according to an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation affidavit, Elvis Thacker told police he killed Ault and burned her car.
After his arrest, Jonathen Thacker told police, according to the affidavit, that his brother used the ruse about asking Ault for a ride so he could rob her. He was under the impression that Ault had won $1,600 gambling at a casino.
After Ault picked up the brothers, the affidavit said, Elvis Thacker gave her directions that led to Cooper's pond on Texas Road in Pocola, Okla. Threatened at knifepoint, Ault said she didn't have any money.
Jonathen Thacker said in the affidavit that his brother wanted to have sex with Ault because she never let him have sex when they were dating in high school. He had Ault undress, forced her to perform oral sex on him and on Jonathen Thacker, then walked her to the pond where he made her wash out her mouth to get rid of evidence, the affidavit said.
Jonathen Thacker said in the affidavit that his brother wanted him to help drown Ault but that he refused and walked back to the car. Shortly after, he said in the affidavit, Elvis Thacker walked back to the car alone.
Elvis Thacker told his brother, according to the affidavit, that he tried to drown Ault but couldn't because she kept fighting to raise her head out of the water to breathe. He then said he cut her throat and left the body in the pond, the affidavit said.
Before throwing Ault's phone into the Arkansas River, Jonathen Thacker told police, he used it to send the text to Ebarb saying the friend had gotten another ride, the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, Jonathen Thacker told authorities that his brother killed Ault because he had released the woman they raped on Sept. 3 after she promised she wouldn't call the police. As soon as the woman got away, she reported the attack.
Jonathen Thacker said his brother was not going to let that happen again, the affidavit said.
In August 2011, the brothers pleaded guilty in Sebastian County Circuit Court to charges of attempted capital murder in the stabbing of Melson and to kidnapping in the Sept. 3 attack on the woman.
Elvis Thacker was sentenced to 30 years in prison on both charges, with the sentences to run concurrently.
Jonathen Thacker was sentenced to 25 years in prison on each charge, with the sentences to run concurrently.
Metro on 01/11/2016